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 ›

Read posts by

Exploring

Video


Video highlights

Watch video highlights from the expedition ›

Tied

With most of the creelers and the rest Of all the local boys out Of commission forever, it seems, tied Up for good like the swings in the playground On the Sabbath or hauled up above The high-water line, following the guga To Sulaisgeir and Rona or away deep-sea For the season, the gulls go... Read more ›

Dolphin

Dolphin

Cabbage and Eggs Extravaganza

David Harradine with cabbage and eggs extravaganza
It’s the first overcast, cold and misty day we’ve had aboard Song of the Whale since the Week 2 crew set off from Mallaig last Friday. But as we sail out of Castlebay harbour, leaving Barra behind us shrouded in rain, there is warmth and cheer in the galley as David Harradine rescues us from... Read more ›

Plankton sampling over the Mingulay cold water coral reef

Net sample (Photo by Steve Hurrell)
After the excitement of the basking sharks in the bay at Mingulay we head out East again to deeper water, to the area of the cold water coral reef. I’ve been asked to take a plankton sample for a scientist who’s working in Dr Kate Darling’s lab at the Grant Institute in Edinburgh University. During... Read more ›

Basking Sharks

zissousshark

Basking Shark – underwater

Basking Shark - underwater

Puffins

puffinthumb

Only Connect

‘A person is a person because of people’ African saying When it comes to artistic talent, I am a non-starter.  As a practitioner that is. My skills in that regard lie in appreciating the work of others, in any medium.  Joining Cape Farewell, therefore, is a real treat for me. As I haven’t seen much... Read more ›

Mingulay

Cliff ledge
Here on Mingulay is the first place I feel really on the edge of something. On Canna the continuous presence of people over thousands of years is palpable. There’s evidence of habitation from prehistoric times right through to the present day – shell middens, and an old Celtic cross, weathered and worn, broken by cannonballs... Read more ›

Conservation in the Sound of Barra and East Mingulay

Barra and East Mingulay
In 2000, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) proposed the designation of the Sound of Barra as a marine Special Area of Conservation (mSAC) to protect sandbanks and seals. This was followed, in 2008, by a SNH proposal to designate an mSAC in the waters east of Mingulay (a smaller uninhabited island lying to the south of... Read more ›

Puzzlement

Antoine Assal in the crows' nest
I’ve been re-reading my earlier blog posts and realise there’s an air of puzzlement about them, and wonder why.  Looking back, I think perhaps that my unsettled and questioning tone is the right one for a journey which is all about research and finding answers. Even the question of stewardship – who is the steward,... Read more ›

Mingulay

Puffins