Climate Hebrides

03/06/2026

🤩 You're invited: climatehebrides.com/event/webinar-plastics-and-climate

Join the Climate Hub for this free webinar, looking at plastics and our climate.

Plastics are having a devastating impact on our natural environment - but change and innovation offer hope, too.

Come and hear how plastic waste is being tackled here in the Western Isles, from our fantastic speakers from Boshan, Plastic@Bay, and Bùth Bharraigh.

We'll also be talking through the Ideas Into Action Fund ahead of its 2026 launch, so come and be inspired to climate action!

🗓️ Wednesday 10th June
🕐 7pm - 8pm
📍Online
🎟️ climatehebrides.com/event/webinar-plastics-and-climate

02/06/2026

🎉🌿 Folks, we are delighted to announce... We have a brand new, free, online training course - an Introduction to Sustainability! 🌿🎉

♻️ climatehebrides.learnworlds.com ♻️

We've created the course specifically for the Western Isles - there are five interactive modules, covering adaptation, waste reduction, energy, transport, and food and diet, all created in direct response to islanders’ concerns, gathered through our Climate Hub outreach projects.

The course is free, accessed from the Climate Hebrides website, and there's a CV-boosting certificate for those who complete all five modules. We hope the course will inspire island residents, organisations, and businesses to live and work more sustainably; each module offers the knowledge and tools needed to take meaningful local action.

Importantly, the course is island-led; designed and created here, using island-specific training points and featuring a host of island voices - see who you can spot!

Take a look - and please help us to spread the word!

👉 climatehebrides.learnworlds.com



📸 Hub memberships and comms officer Lucy talks some of the Western Isles Libraries Stornoway team through the new training

28/05/2026

🎉 We're delighted to be collaborating with Horshader Community Development on their Community & Climate Fayre!

The day will be dedicated to our land, our coast, and our shared future, bringing together an inspiring group of organisations working across climate action, biodiversity, energy, and community wellbeing.

Our outreach officer Sarah will be on hand to offer expert advice on electric vehicles and their suitability for island life, so be sure to stop and say hello!

You'll also be able to meet folk from RSPB Highlands & Islands, Clean Coast Outer Hebrides, Innse Gall, Energy Scotland, and Tree Ark, and there'll be plenty of refreshments available, too.

Pop it in your diary now:

📅 Saturday 6th June 2026
📍 Ionad Na Seann Sgoil - Shawbost
⏰ 12pm to 4pm

26/05/2026

🤩 Something exciting is coming!

We've been hard at work behind the scenes for the last wee while, and we'll be revealing what we've been up to... soon!

⚡Our Climate Hub members will be first to hear, so if you want the inside scoop, sign up here:
👉 climatehebrides.com/climate-hub/membership/

Membership is free, and you'll have access to all our resources and training, as well as access to funding.

Go on - you know you want to! 👀

23/05/2026

🌧️ Are the changes in the weather impacting how you use your croft, garden, or community space?

We're creating a record of the impacts of our changing climate on our islands, through Our Climate Story - and we want to hear from you!

The more information we gather, the better we can understand what we need to do to protect our islands and our heritage - from our crofts and unique machair habitats to our epic beaches and dramatic coastlines; our transport links on and between islands and our homes.

This resident in Barra told us how increased flooding events have reduced the land available for use as hay fields. This impacts their livestock winter feed supply, as well as losing a rich summertime habitat for wildlife.

Join the hundreds of island voices already speaking up for the future of our islands - add your experiences to our climate map:
📍🌿 climatehebrides.com/projects/our-climate-story/

21/05/2026

🌊 Join Clean Coast Outer Hebrides and Horshader Community Development Association for a screening of 'Ocean with David Attenborough'!

Get your free ticket: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ocean-with-david-attenborough-film-tickets-1989818304112

🗓️ Thursday 28th May
🕑 7pm
📍 Shawbost Old School

Revive Our Ocean

This will be our first showing of this incredible film at Shawbost Old School on Thursday 28th May from 7:00 pm, followed by a Q&A session with Janet Marshall.
Tickets are free but it would be wise to book your place at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ocean-with-david-attenborough-film-tickets-1989818304112?

20/05/2026

🐝It's World Bee Day! 🐝

that the Outer Hebrides is one of the last strongholds for bees now rare to the rest of the world?

The Great Yellow Bumblebee, the Moss Carder bumblebee, and the Northern Colletes mining bee all call our islands home - and all are under threat.

🤷‍♀️ Why does this matter?

Bees are an important pollinator, indispensable to human nutrition and resilient ecosystems. Globally, they support almost 90% of our wild flowering plant species and more than 75% of our food crops.

Across our islands, bees work hard supporting our unique biodiversity and keep busy pollinating our crops, our kitchen gardens, and our polycrub produce.

But, their declining populations need our help - coastal erosion and rising sea levels threaten their unique machair habitats, increased heavy rainfall means less foraging flights and flooded nests, and rising temperatures are slowly altering plant blooming seasons, reducing available food.

👍 What's the good news?

By taking small actions locally, we can collectively strengthen our pollinator populations across the Outer Hebrides.

🐝👉Take a look at our top tips to help our island bees and feel free to add your own in the comments!

Species on the Edge Bumblebee Conservation Trust Scottish Wildlife Trust

18/05/2026

🌱🍰 Climate Hebrides team members were delighted to attend today's Grow & Bake webinar, with Coinneach MacLeod (The Hebridean Baker) and Pàdruig MacCuidhein.

We greatly enjoyed the recipe and baking session, and the discussion around small scale food production.

As many of us know, growing food in the Hebrides means dealing with harsh Atlantic winds and unpredictable weather.

The webinar offered a great reminder of how practical, sustainable gardening methods can help growers adapt to these challenges.

👉 Here are the main takeaways:

🪴 The Perks of Container Growing: This is an excellent, flexible method for island climates. Growing in containers means growing medium can be controlled, and plants can be moved to sheltered spots or brought indoors when the weather turns, making it much easier to protect crops from extreme weather.

🌱 Composting and Soil Health: Making your own compost is one of the best ways to build healthy local soil. It helps growers become more self-sufficient while keeping organic waste out of landfills, directly cutting down on emissions.

🍅 Encouraging Lower Food Waste: Traditional island cooking is naturally resourceful. Emphasizing low food waste at home is a simple but powerful way to reduce our carbon footprint and make the most of what we grow.

🥕 The session was a great reminder that you don’t need a massive plot of land to make a difference - even a windowsill herb selection or a pot of carrots in the porch is one less food item intensively farmed (sometimes overseas with copious chemical additions), wrapped in plastic, and shipped across the Minch.

Simple steps like container gardening and home composting make local food resilience achievable for everyone, even in challenging climates.

💭 Do you grow any of your own food? Show us your prize produce! 🍓

NHS Western Isles Community Learning Hebrides

15/05/2026

🙋‍♀️ Who else has been enjoying the vibrant springtime colours across our islands?

The dazzling yellow flowers and delicate coconut scent of the gorse certainly brightens a gloomy day - but gorse also plays an important role in biodiversity across our islands.

🌼 The early gorse flowering season makes it an important source of protein-rich pollen, often vital to pollinators in the early spring when little else is in flower.

🐤 The spiny leaves and dense structure create an ideal habitat for nesting birds such as stonechats, twite, and meadow pipits. The thick tangle of branches also provide a safe refuge for birds in harsh weather.

🕷️ Gorse supports a huge variety of invertebrate life, from moth and butterfly caterpillars to beetles and orb-weaver spiders.

🌱 Gorse captures nitrogen, improving soil quality over time.

These delicate ecosystems are at risk from the impacts of climate change, with more storm events in winter, localised flooding, less rainfall in summer, rising sea levels, and increased coastal erosion.

💚 But, together, we can take action - join the Outer Hebrides Climate Hub and help protect our local wildlife:
Join for free 👉 climatehebrides.com/climate-hub/membership/

13/05/2026

📍 Our Climate Story | Isle of Lewis 🌊

“These dunes provide an important role as a buffer against the sea for the SSSI mudflats, salt marsh and related wildlife and surrounding village of Steinish. Should they continue to disappear and allow direct tidal flows and surges directly into the Steinish basin, the implications for the village, wildlife and wider coastal erosion will be significant.”

Rising sea levels and increased coastal erosion is changing familiar places across the Outer Hebrides. By sharing lived experiences like this, the Our Climate Story Map helps capture how climate change is being felt locally, and why adaptation matters for our islands.

Have you noticed changes where you live?

Your story matters - add your voice:
👉 climatehebrides.com/projects/our-climate-story/