About

In July 2011 Cape Farewell embarked on a month-long expedition by boat across the Scottish Islands, bringing the notion and experience of expedition home to the UK, with an exploration of island ecologies and cultures, and of the strategies for sustainable and resilient futures being implemented across the Scottish Isles. More ›

The Crew

The expedition crew of 40 includes island artists, storytellers, film makers, playwrights, architects, designers, musicians, community leaders, social scientists, ecologists, marine biologists, oceanographers, poets, acclaimed Gaelic singers and a chef.
Meet the crew ›

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Exploring

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Video highlights

Watch video highlights from the expedition ›

Islands and Visions

Eigg Barbecue on Song of the Whale
There is a sea view when travelling from Eigg to Mallaig where you have a 360° vision of the Small Isles, Skye, the mountains of Scotland, Mull and, far into the distance, the Outer Hebrides. At 6 am yesterday the grey of the sea bled into the numerous blues of the mountains all dramatised by... Read more ›

Invention and Intransigence

fish boat polution
Friday visit with Arne Vogler at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Stornaway where he directs the sustainable energy programme. The university is one of 16 colleges and research colleges spread across northern Scotland. His tour with his staff was generous and illuminating where they are researching wave technology, computer mapping of effects... Read more ›

Heisker (Monach Islands)

Monach Islands
Swam this morning off Ceann Ear, one of the Monach islands (Heisker) torn from North Uist by centuries of storm and broken into an archipelago of white shell sand beaches, dunes and flowering machair. We travelled in a day from the dark vertical near-impossibility of St Kilda to the horizontal stillness and limitless skies of... Read more ›

Corncrakes

Field
One of the simple pleasures of living in North Uist is to stand in my garden just after midnight and listen to the loud rasping ‘crex, crex’ song, recalling a grated comb, of around 10 corncrakes that inhabit the crofts surrounding the loch where my house is situated. After long-term declines dating back to the... Read more ›

Tobermory waiting

LC_Image
Tobermory; waiting for the wind to come and then (hopefully) go so we can leave the Bay and head Small Isles-ward. Waiting isn’t bad though – a chance to chat, eat, chat some more. Is climate change happening? Is it man-made? Maybe it doesn’t matter if it is or it isn’t; if people’s lives are... Read more ›

Seaweed: A natural resource with potential

Laminaria Digitata Blatt Molis
At a conference held in Glasgow last week Welsh scientists revealed the use of a kelp species known as Laminaria digitata could provide an important alternative to biofuels grown on land, but the suitability of its chemical composition varies on a seasonal basis. Their study shows harvesting in July when carbohydrate levels in the kelp... Read more ›