Every June, before the dash to the Edinburgh Fringe begins—trading the civilised world for two weeks of dank Grassmarket caves and repurposed, yet recognisable, lecture rooms—Mrs QR and I decant ourselves to Berwick-upon-Tweed. It’s a tradition that started with a fateful invite to review the Film & Media Arts Festival years ago, which in turn triggered a wave of nostalgia for the seaside caravan holidays she enjoyed as a kid. Now, it’s the annual palate cleanser.
Right now, however, the town isn’t waiting for the summer crowd to make a statement. Instead, it is leaning firmly into the mid-winter gloom with Litany for the Border, a major sound and light commission designed to turn the Tweed Estuary into a canvas of the numinous.
Entering its final weekend before the lights go down for good this Sunday, 22 February, the project is the work of artists Gareth Hudson and Toby Thirling, with a score by composer Eleanor Cully Boehringer. For the next couple of nights, choreographed beams of light will continue to pierce the Northumbrian sky from three iconic landmarks: the historic Nicholas Hawksmoor-designed Berwick Barracks, Berwick Sports & Leisure Centre, and Berwick Infirmary.
Essentials
- What: Litany for the Border
- Dates: Concludes this Sunday, 22 February 2026
- Time: From sunset nightly
- Locations: Berwick Barracks, Berwick Sports & Leisure Centre, Berwick Infirmary
- More info: Maltings Website or visit the Maltings at Hide Hill
Voices of the Estuary
This is the second major commission for Berwick Shines—the cultural wing of the Living Barracks project—following Matthew Rosier’s Berwick Parade in 2025. It is an ambitious piece of work, exploring the past, present, and future of those who live along the Tweed, digging specifically into local ideas of spirituality and what gives their lives meaning.
Crucially, the music is rooted in the voices of the estuary. The soundscape consists of three choral motets—Of Sea and Land (Surf Alone), Hideaway, and Lull (By Night)—which draw directly on oral histories, field recordings, and conversations with residents.
“My motets… trace the borderlands of Berwick: the shifting intersections where sea, land, and sky meet,” Boehringer explains. “Each work centres on past, present, and future, and is shaped by listening to people, places, the Tweed, and the histories that surface when following a voice or a current. Beginning with ancient plainchant woven into a slowed quick march, the music moves through a landscape shaped by words from local residents and settles into a lull of many voices conjuring an imagined soundscape.”
These voices belong to the town itself, featuring local choirs and a newly formed ‘all-comers’ community choir. There is even a speculative edge to the third motet, which grew out of role-play workshops led by guest artist Adam James to imagine the Tweed’s distant future.
Lead artist Gareth Hudson is entirely frank about the logistical tightrope such a project requires. “This has been an ambitious and big work that could only be realised through a large system of support both in production and participation,” he notes. “Berwick Shines has gone above and beyond to facilitate brilliant things that should have probably never worked. The talent in this region has allowed us to match our creative endeavours with modes of working that would be near impossible if read as ideas on paper.”
“Berwick Shines has gone above and beyond to facilitate brilliant things that should have probably never worked.”
Lead artist Gareth Hudson
It is a clear victory for the Maltings (Berwick) Trust, driving hundreds of locals to engage creatively while keeping the town’s cultural heart beating pending their main venue’s redevelopment.
More Than Just a Light Show
If catching the installation on its final weekend isn’t enough to tempt you over the border, Berwick remains a marvellous place to simply be. For those seeking a proper feed after the sun goes down, the town’s culinary scene is a genuine surprise. Limoncello is the sort of giant, friendly Italian eatery I loved as a kid, but which are increasingly rare these days. Mavi produces some of the tastiest fire-licked Turkish meat I’ve ever had, and Atelier is a food and wine bar to rival Edinburgh’s reigning cheese and wine mecca, Pickles on Broughton Street.
“My motets… trace the borderlands of Berwick: the shifting intersections where sea, land, and sky meet,” Boehringer explains. “Each work centres on past, present, and future, and is shaped by listening to people, places, the Tweed, and the histories that surface when following a voice or a current.
It is also one of the only towns in the world where the local bookshop, the delightfully named Slightly Foxed, has its own statue of a reading fox standing guard nearby—a fitting tribute to a place that clearly values its stories.
For the visitor, the experience of Litany for the Border is refreshingly egalitarian. There are no tickets and no barriers. You simply find a vantage point at sunset, tune into the music online, and watch the town’s silhouette be redrawn in light.
It is a rare thing for a public commission to feel this sophisticated without being superbly irritating. Instead, it offers a moment of genuine, collective wonder—a chance to stand in the cold, look up, and feel entirely connected to the people and the history sharing the dark with you.
Featured Image: Litany for the Border – Credit – Jennifer Charlton Photography
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