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Topic: Machair

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	Machair (geography) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Scottish Gaelic word machair or machar refers to a fertile low-lying raised beach found on the coasts of Ireland and Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides.
		In both cases, a machair is a former beach, left higher than the current beach beyond it after a drop in sea level.
		Machairs have received considerable ecological and conservational attention, mainly because of their unique ecosystem.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Machair (178 words)

	Action plan for Machair
		Machair is a distinctive type of coastal grassland found in the north and west of Scotland, and in western Ireland.
		Machair is highly susceptible to agricultural modification and is particularly sensitive to changes in grazing, sand and shingle extraction, and recreational impact.
		Machair grassland is an integral part of a wider machair system comprising sand dunes, saltmarsh, coastal lagoons, open waters and marshes, and the action plans for these related habitats should be considered when planning management.
	www.ukbap.org.uk /UKPlans.aspx?ID=30 (2908 words)

	Wildlife Hebrides - wildlife in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
		Machair is a Gaelic word that describes an extensive low-lying fertile plain.
		Almost half of all Scottish machair occurs in the Outer Hebrides and it is one of the rarest habitat types in Europe.
		Machair sand has high shell content, sometimes 80 or 90%, and is found only in the north west of Britain and Ireland.
	www.wildlifehebrides.com /environment/machair (361 words)

	Culture Hebrides - Island holidays in the Gaelic Heartland of Scotland
		Experience the carpets of wildflowers on the machair, the pure white deserted beaches, and the luminous colours of the sea, ranging from aquamarine to an incredible red, where the peat-coloured rivers cross the white sands - all set in an are full of history, from prehistoric times to the days of the Highland Clearances.
		Machair is the arable land produced by the blowing of lime-rich shell sand over the naturally acid soil of Harris.
		At the same time the landlords of Harris began to introduce sheep-farming to the island, and in the 1800s the villages of the machair were gradually cleared, and their people sent to Cape Breton or the Bays, until 1852 not a single crofter was left on the machair.
	www.culturehebrides.com /heritage/machair (1224 words)

	Machair - The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
		Machair is a coastal grassland habitat, restricted within Northern Europe to west Ireland and North and west Scotland.
		The exact make up of the grassland plant communities on machair depends on the physical and management history of the site, particularly surface stabilisation; soil acidity; salinity (all affected by sand blow, changes in the water table and the terrain); tillage and grazing history.
		Machair grasslands support nationally scarce birds, including the corncrake and corn bunting and important populations of breeding waders.
	www.rspb.org.uk /countryside/habitats/coastal/machair.asp (273 words)

	Machair -- Recommendations and Resources (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		The Machair occurs only in the North-West of Britain and Ireland, and it is particularly prominent in the Outer Hebrides.
		Two different definitions of Machair exist: # a type of sand-dune pasture, subject to agricultural cultivation, which prevails in wet and windy conditions # the span of land from the beaches to the area where sand encroaches on peat bogs further inland.
		The Machair faces threats from erosion resulting from rising Atlantic sea levels, and from the recreational use of beaches.
	www.becomingapediatrician.com /health/90/machair.html (171 words)

	THE RURAL STEWARDSHIP SCHEME : page 38
		'Machair' is one of the rarest habitats in Europe.
		The machair is often the main area of cultivation and may include grassland pasture, hay meadow, rotational arable and wetlands.
		Machair supports high numbers of breeding waders including oystercatcher, lapwing, ringed plover, redshank dunlin and snipe.
	www.scotland.gov.uk /library3/agri/rss-38.asp (434 words)

	geographical science : . r e s e a r c h . : Plant Ecophysiology of the Machair Vegetation of the Outer Hebrides (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		The machair sand dunes on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland with buried palaeosol
		Burial by wind-blown sand is, therefore, a common problem for the vegetation of the dunes and machairs which extend along the west coast of the archipelago.
		It is hypothesized that the origins of machair stratification are intimately associated with the quantities of wind-blown shell-sand characteristic of the machair environment (Gilbertson et al.
	www.geog.plym.ac.uk /research/groups/ecophysiology.htm (1586 words)

	The Machair - a digital classroom resource for Higher Geography from The Macaulay Institute
		Machair is coastal grassland that develops on calcareous sands that have been blown inland from beaches and dunes.
		The term ‘machair’ strictly relates to the flat sand plain that develops behind coastal dunes.
		Most of the world’s machair is found in Scotland (13,300 hectares) with smaller amounts in the west of Ireland.
	www.macaulay.ac.uk /machair/Data/start.html (100 words)

	Cladh Hallan
		South Uist's machair was densely populated in prehistory, from around 2000 BC until the end of the Viking period around AD 1300.
		The machair is a kilometre-wide strip of shell sand along the west coast of the islands which is today covered by grassland.
		There was some machair grassland but much of this coastal land was covered by 'living' dunes which constantly threatened to engulf prehistoric people's fields and houses.
	www.shef.ac.uk /archaeology/research/cladh-hallan (688 words)

	Living Landscape Series - Grasslands - Creating Grasslands
		Earthworms, snails, grasshoppers, flies, spiders and harvestmen are all numerous on machair but there are relatively few butterflies and moths; meadow brown, common blues and small tortoiseshell butterflies are most common with dark arches and common rustic being the most widespread moths.
		The belted beauty is an interesting machair moth — the females being flightless — and one theory is that they might have reached offshore islands on rafts of dead wood.
		Twite is another characteristic bird of the machair, replacing the linnet found elsewhere, while the rare little tern often forsakes the foreshore to nest on the cultivated land.
	www.snh.org.uk /publications/on-line/livinglandscapes/machair/summer.asp (694 words)

	European and Development Services - Facts and Figures
		The fertility of the machair has been enhanced by generations of crofters through rotational cropping (ploughing/planting different areas in alternate years), by fertilising the sandy soil with seaweed from the local shore, and by grazing with sheep and cattle.
		In this way the thin soils of the machair can be used to grow crops, yet it is protected from overcropping and overgrazing which would damage the surface covering and result in the ultimate destruction of the machair itself.
		The rich invertebrate population of the machair means that it is important for ground nesting birds such as waders, some of which nest in huge numbers, especially on the machairs of the Uists.
	www.w-isles.gov.uk /factfile/environment.htm (3056 words)

	JMT: Sandwood estate, environment (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		It is believed the machair grassland has been modified by man throughout its development on the sandy coastal plains of north-west Scotland.
		The machair grassland is uncultivated and, mostly, grazed.
		The machair is an important feeding ground for birds of 'high conservation concern' such as skylark and twite, but the corncrake, once numerous, is no longer found.
	www.jmt.org /cons/sand/environ.html (1017 words)

	Walk Hebrides - walking in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
		The machairs or sandy shore plains of Harris are famous for the variety of their bird and plant life.Inn the nesting season, the machair at Northton is full of wading birds - lapwing, redshank, ringed plover etc, while the eagle, buzzard and raven are frequently seen on the nearby mountains.
		Wander the machair; learn about crofting and the rich variety of wildlife that is present in the summer in abundance.
		Enjoy the beauty of the machair flowers in full bloom and visit the coastline to watch the variety of wildlife that is present in abundance in the summer months.
	www.walkhebrides.com /holidays/themed (1091 words)

	JMT Management Plan for Sandwood
		The sand dunes and machair in Oldshoremore, Oldshorebeg and Sheigra are more intensively managed than the open moorland and hillsides inland and are of enormous importance in conservation terms because of their wealth of associated flora and fauna.
		Sand dunes, machair, croft inbye and settlements of Sheigra, Droman, Balchrick, Blairmore, Drumnaguie, Polin and Oldshoremore
		The machairs of Sheigra-Oldshoremore are among the most species-rich systems for their size in Britain with some 220 species of flowering plants being recorded and one of the best areas of species-rich calcareous dune and machair vegetation in Sutherland.
	www.jmt.org /cons/sand/sand_plan.html (14178 words)

	Machair by Janice Hally and Peter May
		Broadcast in Gaelic with English subtitles, its success in the ratings was made all the more notable by the fact that less than 2 percent of the population of Scotland can speak Gaelic, and British audiences are notoriously antipathetic to subtitled drama.
		Machair went on to win nominations for awards for production and writing from The Celtic Film Festival and Writers Guild of Great Britain.
		In these hands, Machair opened with one of life's fundamental rites of passage - a funeral - and moved briskly into conflict.
	perso.wanadoo.fr /peter.may/janice.hally/machair.html (522 words)

	The Selkie
		Each day, when Neil was out in his boat, she and her children would wander along the machair to gather limpets or fill their creels with carrageen from the rocks at low tide.
		She seemed settled enough in the croft on the shore, and in May-time when the air was scented with thyme and roseroot and the children ran towards her, their arms full of wild yellow irises, she was almost happy.
		For a while a sleek brown head could be seen in the dip and crest of the moon-dappled waves, pointing ever towards the far horizon, and then, swiftly leaping and diving towards her, came six other seals.
	www.celticspirit.org /selkie.htm (1119 words)

	BBC - Radio 4 - The Living World 31/10/2004
		Known only by its Gaelic name, the machair are the coastal grasslands, formed from the fragments of shells worn down by the waves of the Atlantic Ocean and then washed up on the shore where they are further broken down.
		The machair is also home to numerous wading birds, like lapwing redshank, twite, oystercatcher and curlew whilst dunlin and ringed plover nest there in the early summer in higher densities than anywhere else in the world.
		The sound of bird calls and the sense of timelessness is enchanting and with the grazing of sheep and cattle by local people, this is a landscape - although fragile, which will continue for many years to come.
	www.bbc.co.uk /radio4/science/livingworld_20041031.shtml (293 words)

	Hebrides 96 Interim - geo survey
		The machair is a deep shell sand deposit with a low quartz component (Boyd and Boyd 1990) which, unaltered, appears as a very neutral medium for the gradiometer.
		Normally anomalies detected by the gradiometer are the result of the enhancement of iron oxides already in the soil and clay, but the natural absence of these oxides in the machair sand makes the interpretation of other anomalies problematic.
		Mound 1 does appear similar to another survey (Kildonan) where the machair was shallow and the effect of the geology very strong.
	www.cf.ac.uk /hisar/archaeology/reports/hebrides96/geo_survey.html (1942 words)

	The Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Machair of the Uists and Benbecula, Barra and Vatersay) Designation Order 1988
		This Order may be cited as the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Machair of the Uists and Benbecula, Barra and Vatersay) Designation Order 1988 and shall come into force on 14th April 1988.
		"seasonal grazing period" means a period of grazing of the common machair during late autumn, winter and early spring between dates determined from time to time by the common grazings committee in accordance with the grazings regulations of the appropriate township;
		"traditional share of the common machair" means that portion of the common machair which has been allocated over time to individual crofters or farmers for cropping purposes by the common grazings committee;
	www.opsi.gov.uk /si/si1988/Uksi_19880495_en_1.htm (1454 words)

	The Environmentally Sensitive Areas (Machair of the Uists and Benbecula, Barra and Vatersay) Designation Order 1993
		The crofter or farmer shall prepare and agree with the Secretary of State a comprehensive conservation plan for the land on his croft or farm, including the traditional share of the common machair and any apportioned land, implement the terms of the plan and keep the operation of the plan under review.
		The common grazings committee shall undertake to croft or farm in accordance with the Secretary of State's Code entitled "Prevention of Pollution from Agricultural Activity: A Code of Good Practice" published in 1992, so as to prevent, or at least minimise, the risk of pollution of the water, air and soil environments.
		The common grazings committee shall prepare and agree with the Secretary of State a comprehensive conservation plan for the common machair in the township, implement the terms of the plan and keep the operation of the plan under review.
	www.opsi.gov.uk /si/si1993/Uksi_19933149_en_2.htm (1197 words)

	Machair House - Self catering house on the Isle of Tiree, Scotland
		Machair House - Self catering house on the Isle of Tiree, Scotland
		Machair House is a great base from which to explore Tiree and all it has to offer.
		It is a detached house with a small garden, situated in Cornaig on the North side of the island.
	www.machairhouse.homestead.com (100 words)

	Virtual Yarns - Colour Stories
		The magic of this witch was entirely for the good, which means it largely passed unnoticed, for while the folk of those times were all too quick to put adversity down to witchcraft, they would seldom realise that good fortune could be due to a similar cause.
		For example, the people of this rocky area, which was known as The Bays, had been "chased out" from their villages on the fair, sandy west coast with its fertile machair soil, for the absentee landlord of Harris wished to lease the best lands out to a wealthy mainland farmer for a greatly increased rent.
		The other spectacular place for clover is on the machair where it bursts out in a summer profusion of coloured clouds and drifts.
	www.virtualyarns.com /colour/summer.asp (4111 words)

	Monitoring Changes in the Machair at Seilebost, Isle of Harris - Project report
		Many people say that the physical feature that most contributes to the special nature of the Outer Hebrides is the machair, the stretch of sandy grassland which borders the Atlantic.
		The school at Seilebost, Harris, is situated on a long spit of machair which over the years has had periods of both growth and erosion.
		Over recent years erosion has become the dominant process and so a monitoring programme was set up in 1998 by L A B Coastal maintained by the head teacher Rhoda MacDonald and her older pupils.
	www.labcoastal.co.uk /projectrep4.htm (266 words)

	BBC News \| SCOTLAND \| Machair trouble on Berneray
		The crofters first received notification of the SSSI last October and have formed the Berneray Machair Committee to fight the idea.
		The crofters say the current condition of the machair is because of their traditional practices, rather than despite them.
		SNH argues that the machair, consisting of delicate flowers linked up to form a virtual carpet of vegetation over light sandy soil, is delicate and needs protection.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/hi/scotland/645419.stm (467 words)

	[No title]
		One of the most consistently popular programmes funded by the CTG is Machair, the Gaelic drama which is subtitled in English and shown during peak-time viewing across Scotland.
		Machair is produced by Scottish Television Enterprises and shot on location on the Isle of Lewis.
		This is a news programme produced by Grampian Television where short bulletins are broadcast daily on STV and twice daily on Grampian, with a twenty-five minute news review on Saturdays.
	www.smo.uhi.ac.uk /canan/gaidhlig-97/media.html (1283 words)

	PhD \| Project Details \| Printer Friendly Page (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-01)
		Importance of soil fungi for the sustainability of species-rich ‘machair’ grassland
		Machair grassland is under threat from a number of pressures and a key challenge for conservation bodies is to return substantial areas of “improved” habitat to “traditional” habitat.
		Despite this, nothing is known about the role of mycorrhizal fungi for the sustainability and dynamics of machair grassland; one potential role is contributing to the very high local plant diversity of machair grasslands.
	www.findaphd.com /search/printpage.asp?projectid=9828 (218 words)

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