How it works

Overview

The first series of Rambling House sought to capture the atmosphere of a proper Donegal rambling house by recording six radio shows starting in August 2009. With this series finished, we are keen to continue with further episodes around the country. Let us know if you are interested in having us look in to the possibility of establishing a rambling house in your area. We’d be keen to record it for posterity so please use the email at the bottom of this page to find out more.

How it works

Each episode has a theme to “get the ball rolling”, but we aren’t tied rigidly to the theme for the duration of the programme. In Rambling House, if you have a story or opinion that relates to the theme, we’d be delighted to hear it. If you have an interesting story about the area, we also want to hear it. If you are shy or need Dutch courage, don’t fret, we might be able to record your story away from the petrifying thought of a live audience!

A bit of preparation

Our Rambling House shows will hopefully sound effortless, but they do take some planning to ensure that there is a “flow” to the evening. We research and work out a series of themes that are relevant to the locality. From there, we locate the best books and personalities who can shed more light on these topics and work on a ten minute script.

After this script, we’ll have some music and then invite either extracts from the book to be read or the personalities to tell us what they know. More music follows and before we know it, it is time for some home baking, sandwiches and of course, tea. By the time Rambling House is back, everyone is well and truly relaxed and the stories and songs start to flow. It’s a great way to spend an evening - you never know what you’ll find out about your locality!

Series One

To give you an idea of what we mean, some of the topics included in the first series below were: - living off the land, smuggling, emigration, maritime history and superstitions, but just as anything went at a rambling house of old, so it does at Rambling House.

Episodes:-

Episode One - Living off the land and sea in Malin Head