Western Isles
Natural Heritage
Select a category for more information about the Western Isles' natural heritage:
SNH in the Western Isles
"The Highlands and Islands contain some of Europe’s most outstanding wildlife and habitats. They are our greatest asset. We must work with the people who own, work and live on the land to manage, improve and benefit from this remarkable heritage."
Loch Druidibeg National Nature Reserve
Loch Druidibeg and the landscapes surrounding it present one of the best places in the Hebrides to see the full range of island wildlife and habitats. The 1677 hectares that form Loch Druidibeg NNR stretch across South Uist from the Atlantic coast almost to the Minch.
Leafing through the centuries
Until about 4000 years ago, there was woodland and scrub in many of the sheltered areas of the Western Isles. A change to a wetter, windier climate encouraged the spread of peat and killed off the trees. Remnants of this ancient scrubby woodland still exist on the islands of inland lochs, usually well away from grazing animals like sheep and red deer. Loch Druidibeg has a number of islands with this native woodland, which features species like birch, rowan, juniper, bluebell and royal fern.
The only other tree cover on the reserve occurs in a small enclosure beside the Loch Skipport road that was planted earlier this century. Unfortunately, it is currently dominated by rhododendrons, but struggling to survive amongst them are other trees and shrubs, both native and foreign - you can even see a monkey puzzle tree! The area provides welcome shelter for a variety of insects and small birds.
Blooming Machair
SNH has owned the part of the reserve that extends east of the main road since 1958, while the machair section was added in 1962 under an agreement with South Uist Estates.
The patchwork of cultivated, fallow and uncultivated wet and dry areas on the machair becomes a riot of colour during the summer months, when plants like corn marigold, wild pansy, thyme and a host of orchids come into bloom.
The coastal areas and croftland are also important breeding areas for wading birds such as dunlin, redshank, lapwing and ringed plover, with corncrakes - rarely seen but often heard - skulking in the hayfields.
On your Visit
You are welcome to explore the reserve as you wish - the only restriction on access is around the southwest corner of Loch Druidibeg during the bird breeding season (April to end of August).
Please remember to respect the rights of the crofters, keep dogs on a lead and try to stay on the existing paths. Fishing on the lochs is by permit only.
There is a self-guided walk around part of the reserve, for which a leaflet is available from the local SNH or tourist offices. Please leave wildlife undisturbed.
No place like home
Wind-blown
shell sand brings further benefits by enriching the freshwater lochs
scattered throughout the machair. Not only do these provide excellent
trout fishing, but they are also important to wildfowl, both as breeding
sites and as winter feeding grounds.
Loch Druidibeg has long been an important breeding site for greylag geese, which remain in the Uists throughout the year. They form one of the few populations of these birds in the British Isles that do not fly north in the spring to breed.
Where opposites meet
The scenery could not be more different at the two extremes of the reserve. The western shores of the Uists are graced by miles of sandy beaches backed by the distinctive coastal grasslands - known as ‘machair’ - that are unique to the north of Scotland and west of Ireland.
These habitats form a vivid contrast with the landscape to the east where heather moorland and rough grass extend to the summits of the hills. Hecla (606 metres) is one of the highest hills and forms an impressive backdrop to the reserve. Golden eagles often hunt along its slopes, where red grouse and golden plover are not uncommon and red deer - a recent reintroduction to South Uist - may also be seen.
Gneiss and salty
Most of the Outer Hebrides are made up of gneiss (sounds like ‘nice’) - the oldest rock in Europe at over 3,000 million years - which gives rise to acid, peaty, unproductive soils. As a result, the eastern end of Loch Druidibeg supports only a limited range of plant and animal life.
However, as the loch drains out towards the Atlantic on the west, it is influenced by the sea and becomes not only more salty, but also less acid due to the shell sand blown in from the seashore. The loch is shallow and very large, and it is possible to trace the gradual change in the plants and insects of the loch from salt to fresh water.
Atlantic fringe benefits
The famous white beaches of the Uists are made up of crushed seashells. The sand from these beaches has been blown inland to create the lime-rich coastal plain or machair that plays a vital role in the traditional agriculture of the islands.
Crofters use the machair to grow small oats and rye for fodder crops, and to graze cattle and sheep in winter. Seaweed cast up by storms is spread to fertilise and stabilise the thin sandy soils. Crofts tend to be situated in the area between the machair and the moor, sometimes referred to as ‘blackland’.
St Kilda National Nature Reserve
The islands of St Kilda rise out of the Atlantic some 65 kilometres west of the Outer Hebrides, forming the last outcrop of the north west edge of Europe. People around the world have long held a special affection for these islands with their poignant history, dramatic scenery, spectacular seabirds and lonely isolation.
Explosive beginnings
This isolated island group is all that remains above the sea of a large volcano thought to have been active about 60 million years ago. The underlying rocks - granite, gabbro and dolerite - have been eroded by ice, rain and sea to form an impressive coastline to all four main islands and their offshore stacks. Hirta boasts the highest sea cliffs in the British Isles at Conachair (430 metres), and Stac an Armin (191 metres) is the highest sea stack
.Living on the edge
People were living on Hirta, the largest of the St Kilda islands, some 2000 years ago. Human occupation of these ‘islands on the edge of the world’ - the remotest community in Britain - continued more or less without interruption until 1930. That year the remaining 36 inhabitants were evacuated at their own request, the isolation - especially in winter - proving too much for their unique but fragile way of life.
In
1931 the Marquess of Bute bought St Kilda as a bird reserve. Although
some islanders continued to return home for the summer, their homes
and the wildlife remained largely at the mercy of visiting trawlermen
or irresponsible tourists. The islands were passed on in 1957 to the
National Trust for Scotland who in turn leased them to the Nature Conservancy
(a predecessor body of Scottish Natural Heritage) as a National Nature
Reserve.
The late Marquess had already agreed to a military presence, so the Conservancy sub-leased some land on Hirta to the War Office to become a radar-tracking station for the new rocket range on South Uist. The army camp may seem obtrusive on the windswept St Kildan landscape, but the Royal Artillery personnel fulfil an important role in watching over the islands during the winter and offer welcome services which help with the work of the conservation bodies.
Britain's biggest seabird city
St. Kilda is famous for its seabirds. It has the
- largest colony of gannets in the world on Boreray and the adjacent stacks, with some 60,000 pairs;
- oldest and largest colony of fulmars in Britain, with about 62,000 pairs;
- biggest colony of puffins in Britain, with some 140,000 pairs;
- most important seabird breeding station in north west Europe with over one million birds.
Bird people
The huge numbers of seabirds on St Kilda were vital to the islanders’ survival. Birds’ eggs provided fresh food in the summer - alongside mutton and fish - with gannets and fulmars being harvested each season to be plucked, dried and stored for the winter.
Feathers and oil were kept for export and helped pay the rent, whilst bones were shaped into useful implements and skins into shoes.
Far-out species
The extreme isolation of St Kilda means that only a limited range of plants and animals can survive here. For instance of the 367 butterflies and moths recorded from the Western Isles, only 58 have occurred on St Kilda. However, many of the animals that do live on the islands either exist in very large numbers or have taken on a unique character.
The familiar wren that we know from hedgerows and gardens, lives on St Kilda amongst the bleak ruins of Hirta or on to the steep, inhospitable cliffs. But it is larger and less streaky than its mainland relative, and its powerful song provides an unexpected backdrop to the crash of Atlantic waves. Wrens are even known to breed on some of the remote rock stacks
The mice of St Kilda also differ from mainland populations. The distinctive house mouse became extinct immediately after the islanders departed, but the field mice - less dependent upon humans - still thrive. A flock of primitive sheep, found nowhere else in the world, survive on the isolated island of Soay. After the evacuation some were transferred from Soay to Hirta where they now run completely unmanaged. An unusual form of Blackface sheep also remains marooned on Boreray.
Work in progress
SNH supports a programme of wildlife research and survey on the islands, which includes a long-term study of the Soay sheep, continual monitoring of the seabird populations and detailed vegetation mapping.
The remarkable buildings and archaeological remains are scheduled ancient monuments and are actively conserved by volunteer parties of the National Trust for Scotland. SNH and the NTS employ a warden on Hirta throughout the summer months.