ABOUT THE PROJECT
How are intersecting environmental and energy transitions reshaping ecocultural heritage in North Sea coastal communities? Focusing on the contexts of Yell (Shetland) and Torry (Aberdeen), this transdisciplinary project examines how climate change, renewable energy development, and industrial expansion transform multispecies environments, cultural practices, and lived experiences. Through a focus on sound and the sensory experiences of transitions, the project aims to facilitate exchange between community groups and generate new insights into the ecocultural impacts of transitions. By amplifying local voices and centring multispecies relationships, it aims to support and strengthen community‑driven approaches to ecocultural heritage preservation.
PROJECT LEAD
Dr Rebecca Macklin
University of Aberdeen
PROJECT Co-investigators
Andrew Whitehouse (University of Aberdeen)
Nicolas Le Bigre (Elphinstone Institute, University of Aberdeen)
Roxane Permar (UHI)
LOCATION:
Aberdeen and Shetland, UK
Project ACTIVE:
1 February – 31 November 2026
Project Partners
Project Funders
The Challenge
Coastal communities across the North Sea are experiencing profound and intersecting pressures as environmental and energy transitions accelerate. In Yell and Torry—places shaped for decades by North Sea oil—renewable energy development, climate change, and industrial expansion are altering ecosystems and everyday rhythms of life. These transitions bring the promise of economic renewal, yet they also carry ecological costs, uneven impacts, and decision‑making processes in which local voices often struggle to be heard. Climate change intensifies these pressures, placing both tangible and intangible heritage at risk, while new infrastructures can reshape landscapes, biodiversity, and cultural practices in ways that cannot easily be undone.
In Torry, successive waves of development have transformed the historic fishing village, with the contested Energy Transition Zone at St Fittick’s Park highlighting tensions between national ambitions and community concerns. In Yell, the legacy of Sullom Voe and the rise of large‑scale windfarms raise questions about land use, biodiversity, and community agency. Across both, language and cultural traditions are closely tied to the coast; as landscapes change, so too do the contexts that sustain place-based knowledges, along with linguistic and cultural practices.
Although Shetland and Aberdeen share long histories of connection and exchange, the cultural, ecological, linguistic, and multispecies dimensions of their transitions remain underexplored. By facilitating new modes of exchange and connection, this project seeks to support cross-regional exchange and local initiatives that place community knowledge at the heart of ecocultural heritage development.
Our Approach
We adopt a transdisciplinary, community‑centred approach to understanding how environmental and energy transitions are lived, experienced, and remembered. Co‑designed with two community‑based charities—Greyhope Bay (Aberdeen) and the North Yell Development Council (NYDC, Shetland)—the project brings together expertise from the arts, community heritage, environmental conservation, and education. These partnerships shape every aspect of the project’s methods, design, and outcomes.
Sound provides a central methodological and conceptual thread throughout the project. From the hum of industrial machinery to the call of an arctic tern, sound is deeply tied to place. The sounds of coastlines shape our memories, reflect the health of local ecosystems, and connect us to generations past and future. By tuning into the present-day soundscape, we can explore how an area has changed over time — and imagine how it may continue to evolve.
Drawing on acoustic ecology, socially engaged arts practice, and participatory action research, the project foregrounds sensory, affective, and embodied ways of knowing that are often overlooked in academic and policy contexts. It also adopts a multispecies perspective, situating human experiences alongside those of birds, marine life, and other wildlife affected by coastal change and infrastructural development. Through intergenerational workshops, children and adults will co‑produce sonic archives of place—using field recorders, hydrophones, and through discussion. The resulting “sonic postcards” will document lived experiences of environmental change and facilitate exchange between communities. These materials will be held in the Elphinstone Institute Archives at the University of Aberdeen as well as in local community archives, forming a long‑term public resource that captures how transitions resonate across places.
Through facilitated exchanges, heritage documentation training sessions, and collaborative outputs, the project will embed shared learning across regions and build capacity beyond its lifecycle, to support community-led initiatives in coastal heritage development.
Over the course of the project, we will:
- Facilitate participatory listening workshops to create ‘sonic postcards’ that will be exchanged between community groups
- Create locally-held sonic archives of Yell and Torry coastlines, and a repository at the Elphinstone Institute
- Produce public-facing outputs including podcasts and an online project exhibition, in addition to academic publications
- Facilitate partner visits and support partner organizations in developing heritage documentation skills and strategies
(Images Credit: Rosie Baillie)
