Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct English translation. It speaks of a deep longing for home,
for belonging, ancestry, land, language, or something ancient that lives in the soul.
It is grief, love, memory, and yearning woven together.
Hynt means path, way, or journey.
Together, Hiraeth Hynt speaks to the path of remembering home. Rather than a physical place,
it is a turning inward, honouring the sacred tracks we follow, as we journey back to self.
꩜ Threads of Lineage & Landscape ꩜
I grew up between North Wales and England. Much of my life was shaped by trying to fit in. Over time, that began to fall away as I explored different beliefs and ways of being, a journey that eventually led me home to Celtic traditions.
My relationship with the frame drum began a decade ago in India. I lived within a community, among Kazakh artisans and musicians who crafted their own instruments by hand. Listening to them play, I softly slipped into trance.
This was my initiation into drum journeying.
Upon returning, I felt a strong desire to connect deeper with my own native land and culture. This is where I began to listen to the whispers of deer.
Megan ydw i - I'm Megan
Photo by Gem at Hiraeth Photography
They appeared to me through dreams, encounters, symbols, and synchronicities, leaving me with a sense of connectedness I had never known before. Following these deer trods through myth, folklore, and research led me to the antlered goddess, and then to Elen of the Ways, the ancient British guardian of pathways, trackways, and migration routes. Through Elen, I was drawn into the mystery of ley lines and pilgrimage, journeying across the sacred landscapes of England, Wales, and Scotland.
Walking these old ways felt like a bone-deep remembering. It was as though the land itself was speaking, and something ancient within me recognised its voice. This path led me to Glastonbury Avalon, where I birthed my first medicine drum, from Scottish stag.
I now live in Scotland, within the magical Kilmartin Glen.
While my heart is deeply rooted in the Highlands, I hold a deep hiraeth for Cymru, the land of my ancestors, the language I did not grow up speaking, and the culture I was not immersed in. Rather than choosing between them, I am learning to live in relationship with both, remembering that ancestry is not linear.
Before Celtic ancestors, we stretch further back still, beyond story, bloodlines, and crossing lands.
꩜ The Sacred Wild ꩜
My connection to deer deepened when I moved to Scotland. They became my neighbours, roaming in the woods behind my home, I began following their tracks. This connection to nature brought about a deep shift in my personal beliefs and how I sustain myself.
Although I have been plant based for the majority of my life, as I immersed myself into the wild, I began to soften. Being faced with the natural cycles of life and death, I remembered my place within the web.
Today, I live as self-sufficiently as possible, growing vegetables, keeping hens and bees, and consuming only wild, ethically sourced animals directly from the land around me.
꩜ Training & Initiations ꩜
My learning has come from self exploration and being introduced to different threads.
Wild feminine archetype immersions, first opened my eyes to somatic embodiment and women’s circles.
That curiosity expanded into folk herbalism and plant medicine. I delved into somatic womb work, and trained in womb healing with tuning forks. An interest grew in traditional, ancient crafts. I then spent a year learning to process rawhide and handcraft ceremonial frame drums. I am currently training to become a drum doula, building the confidence to teach others how to make their own.
My current focus is tending to the hides, learning to craft my own wooden hoops from scratch, deepening into the art of drum making,
and setting up my small-scale, closed-loop workshop.
Aside from my spiritual practice, I have spent many years working in care, mostly assisting the elderly within my communities.
I feel privileged to assist them through the sacred cycles of aging and transition.
My practice honours the old knowledge carried in natural materials and the slow remembering held within the hands.
Witnessing death, and tending to what remains, breathes new life into what has passed, continuing to carry meaning and presence.
Through drum making and traditional crafts, spaces are created for reconnection, and deep listening.
The deeper I walk this path, the more I come to understand that I am not searching for something outside of myself.
Following these threads of landscape and lineage, I gently weave them into a living sense of home.
I am remembering.
And I hope my offerings help you to remember too.
Gyda chariad - With love,
Megan x
