High Way to Hermitage

Here is a new video which is a breath of fresh spring air from Northumberland. The video is for the track ‘High Way to Hermitage’ from The Darkening’s album Cloud Horizons, and features extracts from an award-winning short film by Borders filmmaker Ken Moffatt.

The tune and the film commemorate Mary Queen of Scots’ dramatic ride over ‘The Queen’s Mire’ from Jedburgh to Hermitage Castle to visit her injured lover, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, in 1566. Apparently on the way back to Jedburgh Mary’s horse got stuck in the mire and threw her off into the heather.

Watch High Way to Hermitage on Youtube

Wild Coverdale Flower Festival

Kathryn, together with Amy Thatcher (accordion, clog dancing), are delighted to perform at this unique event in verdant Coverdale, North Yorkshire, in celebration of sustainable flowers and music for the charity ‘Friends of Coverham Church’. Kathryn and Amy will be playing in the beautiful setting of Holy Trinity Church, Coverham. Tickets are limited, so please purchase soon from the Wild Coverdale Flower Festival ticket site.

BBC ALBA — The Darkening full set on iPlayer

Earlier this year The Darkening played a special set for BBC ALBA at Celtic Connections Festival. The full set is now available on BBC iPlayer (restricted to UK viewers with a TV licence…).

BBC ALBA

At this year’s Celtic Connections festival Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening played a special set for BBC ALBA’s ‘Seirm’ music programme. They feature in the first episode of a new series, due to air on March 2nd at 21.00 GMT. The programme will be available to view after broadcast.

Americana-UK’s Folk Round Up

The Darkening’s album ‘Cloud Horizons’ is included in Americana-UK’s Folk Round Up this month. Previous reviewers, including BBC Radio 2 and 6Music’s Mark Radcliffe, have compared some of the album to Led Zeppelin. Now from Americana-UK: “Infused with a pagan spirit it recalls, in places, the ‘British Tribal Music’ phase of Hawkwind.”

Concerts in 2024

As Kathryn & The Darkening’s UK autumn tour draws to a close, here are some dates for your diary for next year! For more details check Live Dates. Some concerts may not be on sale quite yet. Ticket links will be updated when the event goes on sale.

New video: ‘Caelestis’

Conjuring up the spirits of the past, Kathryn & The Darkening have just released this new video to accompany the track ‘Caelestis’ from the new album, Cloud Horizons.

Amy and Stef take the vocals in Stef’s new treatment of Latin words from around 1900 years ago, found inscribed on a stone found at Carvoran in Northumberland. The mentions of Syria and Libya reflect the diversity of the troops stationed along Hadrian’s Wall at this time.