We are thrilled to have organised south Skye’s first and hugely successful nature festival in July 2026.

The festival began with a social get-together with live music from local folk band Skirlin’ that began an excited buzz that would last the whole weekend. In all the festival hosted 43 activities —almost all free— across locations in south Skye and just across the Skye bridge at the Plock, all led by an amazing team of experts. In addition, the festival showed Skye’s big screen premiere of the film 'Ocean with David Attenborough'.  

Several guided walks focussed on birding, geology, ferns, rockpooling, rainforest, otters, peatland restoration, river ecology, community woodlands, bumblebees and the habitats of reptiles and amphibians, as well as a day-long demonstration of bird ringing by the BTO. 

Workshops subjects included Marine Protected Areas, Shorewatch cetacean spotting, shore foraging, upcycling Celtic knot mats from beach litter rope, while a busy schedule of indoor talks covered the birds of Skye, rewilding and species re-introductions, wildlife sound recordings, the role of amphibians and reptiles as growers' friends, the elusive corncrake, the homing behaviour of sea trout, and the importance of biodiversity. 

Across the many events 750 attendances were recorded, as well as a couple of hundred more people visiting the busy event hub at An Crubh where 14 nature organisations hosted displays and stalls. 

So why a Nature Festival?  

Our idea for this festival came about following a public marine litter day event in 2025 that gave the public an opportunity to meet and engage with several organisations involved with marine litter impact and mitigation, as well as see the results from Sleat Nature Group’s own litter surveys. 
  
We quickly saw the potential for doing something bigger, so the idea became a plan, and thanks to volunteer enthusiasm and well-appreciated grants from Fauna & Flora International, the Highlands & Islands Climate Hub, and the Sleat Community Trust, the plan became a festival. 
  
Our festival ambition was two fold: Firstly to give the public the opportunity to re-engage with nature —something that is so often written out of our busy lives, and secondly to highlight the issues facing nature around us. 
  
Unfortunately our beautiful Scotland ranks in the lowest 10% for "biodiversity intactness", meaning our breathtaking hillsides, glens, lochs and forests are actually in poor condition. We have become used to seeing less and less wildlife as if it is normal, but every species and every part of nature —from a moth to a minke whale— plays a unique and vital role in maintaining a healthy planet. 
  
And a healthy planet is what we all rely on for our food, water and clean air; for too long we have taken it for granted. This was just one weekend festival, but nature exists 24/7, 365 days per year; our hope is that this festival helped ignite a passion to be part of protecting our nature, and help restore our ailing biodiversity. 

Thanks again to An Crubh, the festival sponsors, the many event leaders and speakers, and to the many organisations that came and gave support, including Trees For Life, Climavore, B.T.O, RSPB, Forestry Land Scotland, BDMLR, Skye & Lochalsh Rivers Trust, Fishing For Litter, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation, The Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Whale & Dolphin Conservation, and the Blue Marine Foundation.

We’d like to also say a huge thankyou to the local community and An Crubh for helping make the festival such a success.