SAMS news room

What will environmental historians and archaeologists in the year 2500 think of our time?

That’s the theme of a writing competition organised by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), as part of its Festival of the Sea on May 26 and 27. The festival weekend, taking place at the Ocean Explorer Centre at Dunstaffnage, will run alongside Historic Scotland’s Viking weekend and offer fun games and exhibitions with a marine theme from 11.30am – 4.30pm both days.

Ahead of the festival, SAMS is encouraging budding writers of all ages to submit entries into a writing competition. A primary 1-4 age group should write a poem, primary 5-S2 the lyric to a song, S3-S6 a short story, and adults are to write a short story of around 1,000 words.

The deadline for entries is May 18 and the results will be announced during the festival weekend. There are some fantastic prizes on offer from our competition sponsors CalMac Ferries Ltd, Sealife Adventures, Historic Environment Scotland and Kilmartin House Museum.

 SAMS Outreach Officer, and festival organiser, Helen McNeill said: “A lot of writers will seek inspiration from the environment and on the west coast of Scotland much of our literature and music has been influenced by the sea.

“We hope that this competition will encourage people to think about their local environment and to have a bit of fun by getting creative.

“There is still time to get entries in, so get writing!”

To submit your entries, or to find out more about the festival and the writing competition, contact Helen at Helen.mcneill@sams.ac.uk