News
The items on this page are in several different sections including:
Meetings
Meeting with Scotland's First Minister
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On Friday 15th August 2025, our Founder and Chair: Janet Marshall was able to
tell the Right Honorable John Swinney, First Minister of Scotland about the work
and some of the aspirations of Clean Coast Outer Hebrides
Beach Cleans
South side of the Braighe, Isle of Lewis 15/08/25
On a perfect day for a beach clean* a mixture of experienced and novice volunteers made a great difference to the south side of the Braighe and the car park area in the middle.
23.7kg of mostly marine litter was removed, then a further 10.5kg removed from the heap previously collected at the eastern end, weighed, sorted, details logged, then taken to Creed Park where we recycled what we could. Sadly most of what was collected ended up in the landfill.
The sign says ...Fishing/Access
Affected by the overhead electric power lines
Always carry rods, poles and other equipment at a low level, parallel to the ground
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Newton, Stornoway 19/07/25
There was a LOT of litter to be shifted, including this broken fishing rod. Unusually most of the items collected were from the land, food packaging, drinks bottles, both glass and plastic. Usually the source is from the fishing and aquaculture industries.
Several of the local residents came out to thank our volunteers for doing such a splendid job.
Crossbost, Isle of Lewis 21/06/25
Three shores in the Crossbost area were tackled, and CCOH were delighted that several Mowi fish farm staff came along and moved a LOT of fish farm gear. All of the litter from the eastern shore was removed, and most of the items collected from the shores beside the pier. These were sorted, logged, taken to Creed Park recycling what we could.
West Loch Tarbert, Isle of Harris 19/06/25
We supported the juniors of Sir E Scott school in Tarbert to clean the beach beside their school, but didn't have time to completely clear it in that session, so it was wonderful to hear that several of the pupils came back after school to finish the job. Well done!
Garry Beach, Isle of Lewis 14/04/25
In association with Hurtigruten Expeditions HX, the cruise line company, staff and crew from the vessel that was visiting Stornoway that day joined the clean at Garry on a beautiful day. At first sight, the beach looked clean but there were a LOT of small pieces of fishing gear.
CCOH were very privileged to be the first Scottish group to be selected to receive a BIG BLUE BAG, an environmental initiative with Monty Halls. The bag contains the materials to conduct experiments on the beach that can assess the degree of microplastic present, sea temperature, Ecosystem Health via Bird Species, and Coastal Litter.
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The event was filmed by the BBC; Janet Marshall spoke on the English version that was shown on BBC Scotland evening news and Magaidh Smith spoke on An Là, MG Alba.Clips of these news items are below
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Monty Halls and a young volunteer being filmed by the BBC while doing an experiment to assess the degree of microplastic present in the sand.
A video clip from BBC Scotland evening news in English
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A video clip from MC Alba An Là in Gaelic
Some of those present at Garry that day:
Second left, Janet Marshall, Founder and Chair of CCOH
Third left, Monty Halls, Environmental Speaker and Ambassador
Third left, Gebhard Reiner, CEO of HX Expeditions
Plus our lovely and essential volunteers
Holm, Isle of Lewis 05/04/25
Holm, Isle of Lewis 05/04/25
In association with Stornoway Primary School, the children made a start on clearing this shingle shore on the west side of Holm.
Continuing to clean more of the shores at Holm, much litter was removed from both sides of the isthmus.
Talks Given
Janet here - I'm adding content as fast as I can. I've been giving talks all over the place, both here and on the mainland. Come back soon to see what has been achieved :-)
Excellent News from
Fauna and Flora International
We were selected for Capacity Training by Fauna and Flora International which means that several nice things are happening now including receiving funding so far for more training of our team, better signage and equipment for our events, and good software to do our accounts.
We are very grateful to Ceris of Fauna and Flora International for helping us sharpen up our act, this means that we will be working with many more community groups to mentor and support them to do their own beach cleans. The groups we have worked with so far have been very successful. Please contact us at hello@cleancoastoh.com to discuss how we can support your community group.
RSPB Nature of Scotland
Award Ceremony
Clean Coast Outer Hebrides is a member of the Scottish Islands Federation Marine Litter Working Group, which was a finalist from over a hundred applicants at the RSPB Nature of Scotland Award at the end of November in Edinburgh under the Coasts and Waters category this was the first time that SIF MLWG had applied and were delighted to have made the top five. From left to right: Catherine Gemmel: Marine Conservation Society, the sponsor, Catriona Spink: Tiree, our own Janet Marshall: Chair, CCOH, and Camille Dressler: Chair, Scottish Island Federation. We wanted to take this lovely Highland Coo made by Vicki Last of SIF to the event, but the organisers said no.
For more of our past events, click here for our