When I left university I wasn’t too hung up on getting an animation job, just that I got a job. It was in the spring of 2021 that I applied for a role at Dunkeld Community Archive as an assistant, which I got. But when my boss found out I was an animator she gave me the task of brining the tale of Dundonnachie to life so that my talents weren’t wasted. A complete fluke encounter set me on my first commissioned animated project. 

 

‘The Bridge Toll Riots: The Tale of Dundonnachie’ is the story of Dunkelds’ local hero, Dundonnachie. In 1868 the crooked Duke of Atholl took advantage of an agreement made by his grandfather. That the payment of the Telford bridge be collected as tolls, and when the difference was made, the tolls would be no more. But even after the bridge was long paid for, he kept the tolls in place. Dundonnachie, a local merchant was the only one with enough free time and money to make the Dukes life a living hell. He would challenge him in court and smash the toll gates with his axe. The riots got so out of hand the the Black Watch needed called. In the end, bridge tolls across Scotland were ended, but due to the stress of it all, Dundonnachie died obscure and penniless.

 

For this project I was given access to the archives own materials including a blue binder complied by one of Dundonnachie's own descendants, which contained various documents that wouldn’t have been preserved otherwise. It was a fun project and one I was given lots of freedom on.