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

Video


Video highlights

Watch video highlights from the expedition ›

Cape Farewell – we know what to do, can art help us get on and do it?

The following is an excerpt from Sara Parkin’s article found on the Forum for the Future website. …I was fortunate enough to join the crew for one week of a four week tour of Scottish Islands, starting with Skye and Canna before crossing the Minch to Mingulay, Barra and South Uist. The weather was kind,... Read more ›

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 ›

Oceanographic Survey

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On the way from Saint Kilda to the Monachs, we conducted an oceanographic survey to measure the temperature and salinity of the water from the surface down to 100m depth. We did this by stopping every five miles to lower a CTD (which measures Conductivity, Temperature and Depth) into the water. Conductivity is used to... 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 ›

Rock, wind, sand, peat, water

Sailing to Lochmaddy
Lochboisdale, South Uist. Met with Joanne Ferguson of Scottish Natural Heritage, David Muir from Coast Adapt, and Huw Francis from Storas Uibhist (community landowners of the South Uist Estate, the largest community buyout in Scotland). Small crofting communities, separated by mountains, boggy peat lands and lochs, are scattered along the broken coastlines east and west,... 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 ›

Crows’ Nest

Crows nest
Fiona Cunningham-Reid, our filmmaker, wonders around our boat with her camcorder on the shoulder. She searches for a spot sheltered from the wind to ask about the “impact of Cape Farewell on our work”. I need an escape route. I say that first I want to take some altitude from the project and so decide... Read more ›

Tobermory waiting

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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 ›

Beginnings

Towards An Sgurr, Eigg
This July Cape Farewell embarks on its biggest project yet, in partnership with Cove Park: a month-long expedition by boat across the Scottish islands from Oban across the Western Isles of Scotland to Lewis. After eight journeys to the High Arctic and one to the Peruvian Amazon, we are bringing the notion and experience of... Read more ›