Monitoring Changes in the Machair at Seilebost, Harris

This is a Joint project with Seilebost School.

Many people say that the physical feature that most contributes to the special nature of the Outer Hebrides is the machair, the stretch of sandy grassland which borders the Atlantic. Its existence depends on a subtle blend of environmental and human factors which have shaped it over many years. In many places its survival is threatened by the combination of climate change, sea level rise and changing land use.

The school at Seilebost, Harris, is situated on a long spit of machair which over the years has had periods of both growth and erosion. Over recent years erosion has become the dominant process and so a monitoring programme was set up in 1998 by L A B Coastal maintained by the head teacher Rhoda MacDonald and her older pupils. The data gathered in 2000 contrasted with that gathered in the previous two years and showed a marked slowing of the erosion process. This, together with some recolonisation of eroded areas, could suggest that a switch from erosion to growth is possible, although with the threatened rise in sea levels and predicted increase in storminess there must still be uncertainty regarding future change.

near Seilebost	Recolonisation of eroded machair at Seilbost