YOU DID IT! A massive well done to the many volunteers who joined campaign group Eilean mo Ghaoil this week to let people know there is still time to protest against Northland’s N4 / Spiorad na Mara offshore wind farm – and how to officially object before the deadline of 7th May.
In other news, lifeboat fundraising queen Jane Maciver has finally got underway on her epic Hebridean Way adventure after being caught up in ferry mayhem.
Also, insights into an alternative and refreshing approach to business from homeopath and herbalist Amanda Saurin, creator of the croft-based wellness brand A.S Apothecary.
Amanda is based in Harris but has clients all over the world and is currently in Greece with half her team, working on a bespoke spa product range from native plants. She also makes the Wild Eve non-alcoholic drink which is stocked in 50 Michelin restaurants but Amanda is opposed to exponential growth and ‘more’ for the sake of it, saying it’s important to know when is ‘enough’.
WELL DONE to the campaign group Eilean Mo Ghaoil for rallying the troops and leafleting a huge swathe of Lewis in a bid to let people know that THERE IS STILL TIME to object to Northland’s massive offshore wind farm that is planned for the west coast of Lewis.
The deadline for objections is 7th May and objections can be submitted via the ObjectNow platform, which takes only a few minutes and is very straightforward and easy to follow.
Submitting an objection ensures concerns are recorded as part of the decision-making process and a high number of well-reasoned objections will demonstrate to decision makers that there is significant public concern about a planning application and its potential impacts.
To submit an objection, visit
One of the dozen or so committee members of Eilean Mo Ghaoil – who have chosen to remain publicly anonymous – told me their leafletting campaign this week had been hugely encouraging, in terms of what they were hearing on the doorstep, and heartening to be a part of.
The committee member said it was concerning, though, to discover how many people thought it was “a done deal”.
The proposed project is majority owned by Northland Power, a Canadian company, and the electricity generated will go into the national grid, not anywhere near those impacted by the development, and does not guarantee cheaper bills for local households either.
Northland’s N4 project, which the developers also named Spiorad na Mara to howls of cultural appropriation from the indigenous Gaels, would see the construction of up to 60 turbines.
One of the proposed scenarios has the turbines standing 338m above sea level – a third of a kilometre! – and taller than than the Eiffel Tower.
With the closest turbine only 6km from shore, they will be visible from most of Lewis.
The blades will be so big that some of them will be bigger than a Boeing 747-8, the largest operational aircraft int the world. The rotor diameter will be 280m. For further comparison, the rotor diameter of the Galson turbine is 44m.
In order to get the message out to as many people as possible, Eilean Mo Ghaoil – which recently carried out a survey showing 88 per cent opposition to the plans in the local area – embarked on the leafleting drive, and nearly 50 people got involved. They were mainly women and were women of all ages, including some young mums with children in tow. And they fairly got their steps in!
Speaking on Wednesday night, she told me: “‘We’ve just leafleted the whole of Ness. That’s us now leafleted between Uig – Ness, the cable corridor and a huge area of Stornoway.
“Feedback on the doors has been brilliant. We knew the community were mostly opposed to the development but this solidified it. Some people were waiting for their paper copy and were delighted to receive it to object.
“It’s concerning the amount of people who believed and have been told his is a done deal and it already had planning. They were relieved to hear they still had an opportunity to object.
“The main message is – there is still time to object, until 7th May. Every member of your household can object. Your family on the mainland can object. Please help the community of Lewis get their voices heard in this extremely unfair planning process.”
She added their opposition to the renewables project went “against the narrative” but nonetheless it had been “so exciting to be part of a grassroots community campaign”.
She said: “We’ve had amazing volunteers doing 20,000 plus steps a night. Young mothers and women working together in something we believe in.
“It’s been a hard and stressful slog, but proud to be a part of it. Whatever the outcome, we can rest easy knowing we’ve done all we can, to a high standard.”
Between 30 and 40 volunteers joined in the leafletting. Added to the Eilean Mo Ghaoil committee, who number a solid 12 and a few others that come and go, that made up the group of nearly 50.
Most of the members of Eilean Mo Ghaoil keep anonymous, in order to protect themselves from some of the repercussions that can result from going up against plans for such a development. Their website describes them as “Isle of Lewis residents, Gaels, business owners, parents, crofters and surfers”.
The group have made extensive use of social media during their campaign and produced detailed and insightful reports on the plans along with professional infographics.
The Eilean Mo Ghaoil member told me: “I wish the narrative was that our campaign was inspiring. When did it become that a grassroots community campaign spanning years with women, young and old, coming together wasn’t inspiring? We need more of it!”
Posting on social media, the group said: “The response from people on doorsteps has been both encouraging and empowering, sending a clear message to the Scottish government – the community’s voice has not been heard in the process, to date, but we will be heard now.”
For more on the campaign, visit https://www.emg-lewis.co.uk/
MEANWHILE lifeboat fundraising queen Jane Maciver and her four-legged companion Dooker have made it to Barra and begun their 169-mile walk of the Western Isles.
Jane, Dooker and their driver Anne Mackenzie made it to Barra this afternoon (Friday) after having to go the long way round, because the Leverburgh ferry was off due to a crew shortage.
So they had to go Tarbert to Uig, Uig to Lochmaddy and then down to Eriskay, which was not in the plans. It was panic stations when Jane got the message from CalMac on Wednesday night that the Leverburgh boat – such as it was, anyway – was off, but they managed to get the last space on the triangular route.
Not being able to start till midday, it was going to be a late finish for Jane and Dooker as they have 15 or 16 miles to cover, but she was determined to get started on the 1st of May as planned, not least because the schedule has been planned for months and they have accommodation and other ferries to get to!
Jane is walking the length of the Outer Hebrides to fundraise for Stornoway RNLI in memory of her partner Craig Duffy, who lost his life at sea in 2004.
Jane held her first fundraising challenge in 2008, to mark what would have been his 30th birthday – and she’s been fundraising ever since.
She began training for this latest challenge in January, logging more than 310 training miles, in addition to her everyday walks to and from work, and was hugely encouraged by the massive boost to her JustGiving pot over the last week or so.
In fact, around the very time she got off the ferry in Ardmhor, her fundraising total so far went past the £5000 mark – which was what she was aiming to raise by the time her walk is done.
Jane, a veterinary assistant at the Old Mill practice in Stornoway, is walking the first stretch in reverse, going from the ferry to Bagh a Deas in Vatersay because that made more sense logistically than driving to Bagh a Deas only to walk back up…
It’s an approach she will take for the last section of the Hebridean Way too, as she plans to finish in Stornoway having walked from Ness, so that she can put her finish line at the lifeboat station.
Jane spoke this week about her “disbelief” that the time had finally come – when she thought about it in January, she felt that was “loads of time” – and she had had to endure a lot of training walks in brutal weather conditions as Spring was a long time coming.
But today she was very pleased to get going and thanked everybody for their generosity.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” she said. “People’s generosity is just ‘wow’.”
And happy as she is to be in Barra, Jane is also looking forward to her miles closer to home when she will see familiar faces as she has got a lot of encouragement from drivers in Lewis who passed her when she was out on the road, logging her miles. Often people would stop to check she was okay and offer lifts, water, coffee.
She added that some of their expressions when they passed her out walking in random places had given her “a much-needed chuckle on some days”.
The thought of the money she’s raising has been a huge motivator. But if you’re on the road over the next 10 days or so, and you see our Jane and Dooker… give them a massive wave too!
To donate to Jane’s fundraiser, visit www.justgiving.com/page/jane-maciver-8
AND FINALLY, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Amanda Saurin of A.S Apothecarey recently – see this week’s Stornoway Gazette for a fuller piece – and found her approach to business to be really refreshing.
In a world where so many are about expanding, Amanda doesn’t have expansion plans as such and has allowed her business to grow organically. She does not actively look for growth areas but, rather, waits for them to come to her.
Amanda, originally from Edinburgh, lives in Northton, where she grows plants for her products on her croft and in her giant greenhouse, and has a workshop in Leveburgh.
A homeopath and herbalist to trade, Amanda was at the forefront of the clean beauty movement in London in 2015 when she was sought out to create a ‘clean’ skincare range.
Before that, her work had been more therapeutic but she embraced the opportunity and A.S Apothecary was born.
Her connection to Harris came about through a chance meeting with the daughter of the man who founded the Isle of Harris distillery, Burr Bakewell, and she ended up making the botanical sea kelp infusion that goes into Isle of Harris gin!
That work meant she was flying up and down to the island regularly, developing the infusion, and she was struck by the beauty of the place and the availability of so many plants she could use in her business. She knew she could make it work and relocated in 2019.
Amanda’s range of products is extensive and includes plant-based skincare, free of synthetic chemicals. The Harris range in particular is aimed at women of a certain age and – being a woman of a certain age – I plan to try some out very soon!
She also has products that combat the sleep problems that come with mid-life, as well as the generally rubbish skin, and her sleep cream, launched about a year ago, has a loyal following and is used by men and women all over the world.
I already knew, before speaking with Amanda, about her Wild Eve non-alcoholic drink and really like it. She created it because she was fed up, as a non-drinker, of the limited options she had when she went out and she wanted something that gave her a sense of occasion.
So she came up with Wild Eve but it did take her four and a half years to develop it. “It’s really, really hard to make a delicious non-alcoholic drink,” she said.
Well it was worth the hard work. I’m a non-drinker too and i had Wild Eve and tonic the last time we went out to dinner – at Uig Sands – and was struck by how good it was and how much like a ‘real’ drink, with a sense of ceremony.
It has had a ringing endorsement too.
Wild Eve is stocked by 50 Michelin restaurants, including Gleneagles, The Kitchin, Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck and Tom Kerridge’s restaurant. Indeed, when I spoke to Amanda on the phone she happened to be sitting having a coffee in the Gleneagles Townhouse in Edinburgh and remarked that she could see a bottle of her Wild Eve on the bar…
That was “rather nice”, she said. And it came off the croft in Harris!
Talking with Amanda leaves a very pleasant aftertaste in general.
How many business owners, especially when they have a global brand, will choose ‘sufficiency’ over exponential growth? Partly that makes sense, to ensure plant-based products don’t lose their vitality by sitting on a shelf for too long, but it’s more than that. It is an ethos.
She said she only starts thinking about what products she could develop when people come to her, expressing a need. Otherwise, she is satisfied.
“We’re in a really good position. The business is really strong, I’m doing all the things I love, I’ve got a team of fantastic people that I work with… why would I want more? It’s not about more and more and more. I think you have to be able to say, ‘you know what? This is great.”
Amanda pays everyone “well above the Living Wage Foundation recommendation” and her workforce has a flat structure, with everybody paid the same and trained up to cover each other.
“We just all get on… there’s no incentive to tread on people to get up the ladder because there’s no ladder. We are ladderless!”
In an example of what can be achieved when people have a gentle touch, Amanda tells the story of 250 roses she wanted to take with her in their move from Sussex to Harris.
She had feared they would not survive the journey but she was keen to bring them because they are such an important plant in her products, and at “the core of almost everything I do”. So she came up with a plan.
She moved them from Sussex to Yorkshire and let them acclimatise there for a couple of years before moving them the rest of the way north to Harris.
“And we didn’t lose one rose. Not one. That’s my favourite thing.”
Blooming marvellous.
For more about A.S Apothecary visit https://asapoth.com/
For more about Isle of Harris distillery visit https://harrisdistillery.com
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