Magical machair

A look how this unusual maritime pasture is becoming a haven for flora and fauna

The machair is a unique and fertile pasture that lines the west coast of Scotland, particularly along the broken chain of the Outer Hebrides. It is one of the most unusual and spectacular visual habitats in Europe, filled with flowers and home to an abundance of wildlife. You'll find it along the beaches of the westernmost reaches of Scotland.

It thrives in the wet and the wind of the Western Isles and is at its most beautiful in the spring and summer months when it carpets the coast in rare irises, orchids and many other flowers.

The machair is only found in Scotland and in a small part of Ireland. It's made up of nearly 90 per cent broken shells. The shells give the beaches and the machair the gleaming white associated with the west coast of Scotland. The wind blows the shell sand over the land. This process is essential in creating the machair.

It's the sheer variety of colourful flowers in among the strong marram grass that makes the machair so spectacular.

Up to 45 different flower varieties have been found in one single square metre. Irish Ladies Tresses, various orchids and Yellow Rattle are some of the more numerous flowers that colour the floral landscape. One orchid in particular is unique to the machair – the marsh orchid, Dactylorhiza majalis scotica. It only grows along a small stretch of coast in North Uist.

In recent years the machair has become an important breeding habitat for the rare corncrake. The ongoing success of the Corncrake Initiative, a progr...

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• Issue : 26
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