West Word - February 2026

Somehow I cannot believe we are in March already! February whizzed by in a blur of sunshine and showers and here we are moving at a pace through Spring into Summer. The snowdrops came and went, wild garlic is already sprouting in the woods, daffodil leaves pushed up through the ground and are now flowering with the bluebells following closely behind. The grass is still in slumber and the mud is abundant. 

There’s new life on the farm too. A few more surprise calves have appeared which has made everyone happy. It's a busy schedule of daily feeding of the cattle for the farm team and getting on with fencing repairs. 

We had a visit from Derek Alexander who is the NTS Head of Archeology. He came with two PhD students to take peat core samples from our upland peat bogs. Amazingly, they can analyse each core sample and look for the presence of things like pollen grains to determine what life was like for islanders through the years. Derek also used LiDar to photograph Sgorr nam Ban-naomha (grassy slope of the holy women) which is known locally as The Nunnery.

Nathan, Davy, Margaret and William did their MCA Oil Spill Level 1 training. Rather like First Aid training, one hopes never to have to use it but we now have an understanding of what is required in the event of an oil spill and how to use the equipment we have here on island.

Our various projects continue. Work has started on a feasibility study for the Rhu Church. We are working on getting the last bits of funding for our community houses and Coroghan Barn has moved onto technical design with the architects, WTA, due to visit the island in May to work with the community on choosing interior materials. Planning and scheduling continues for our renewables upgrades. Who said 2026 was going to be a quiet year? 

Our annual Canna 10K trail run takes place on Saturday 30th May 2026. If you would like to register for the trail run, please visit www.isleofcanna.com/canna10ktrailrun-2026