About Mary and the clarsach

I'm Mary and I play a Pilgrim clarsach. I first played the clarsach at a course at the Edinburgh International Harp Festival at the age of 9 and continued lessons at Howgate Primary school and then with Isobel Meiras in Edinburgh. I was a member of Na Clarsairean for many years, playing in concerts in venues such as the Usher Hall and the Queens Hall in Edinburgh. While studying at The University of Edinburgh, I was one half of a harp duo playing in hotels all over Scotland including Cameron House Hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond, Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire and The Balmoral in Edinburgh. Nowadays, based in Perthshire, I play solo and like to play traditional Scottish and Gaelic melodies aswell as well known classics.

The harp, or clarsach, has a long history in Scotland, rivalling even the bagpipes for the position as national instrument. Triangular harps were known as far back as the 10th century, when they appear on Pictish carvings, and harp compositions may have even formed the basis for pibroch, the folk bagpipe tradition. By the 18th century, however, the harp was no longer popular, and it was not revived until the 1890s. The 1931 formation of the Clarsach Society kickstarted the harp renaissance.