Year 11 - DME

A few more links...

I am not sure why I didn't have this one - Moorland Without Turbines - on my original list. It is (hopefully obviously!) the website of a group opposed to the development of windfarms on Lewis and the other Western Isles, and there are lots of useful/interesting bits and pieces including photos, media coverage and the group's response to planning consent being granted on 14th January 2010 for the 33 turbine Muaitheabhal windfarm in the south of Lewis. There is also a number of maps detailing the various windfarm projects on Lewis and Harris.

You might also like to have a look at this .pdf document that I've just come across on the Lewis Wind site... The first paragraph of the Executive Summary reads:

The key objective of the study has been to help the Western Isles to deliver economic and community benefit by identifying renewable energy potential, including the role for different scales of energy generation compatible with environmental obligations. A second objective has been to identify other opportunities for sustainable development initiatives across the Western Isles.

At 133 pages, I wouldn't necessarily expect you to read all of it, but there are some interesting points made... (Note that this study was commissioned by Lewis Wind - the company who are proposing the windfarm developments.)

Some of you were asking the other day about crofting... The Scottish Crofting Federation website has lots of photos and a FAQs section.

If you want to know more about peat, then you could do worse than to visit the website of the International Peat Society. Also, this Guardian article looks at the Isle of Lewis crofters who are returning to the old tradition of cutting peat to use as a domestic fuel - and considers the environmental impacts of peat-cutting on the protected peatland areas.

The Explore Scotland site has a range of information about the Outer Hebrides, including a tourist guide with maps of the area and a Lewis Virtual Tour.