Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival 2026 dates announced following wild success

The 2026 Festival – the fifth iteration of the annual Festival - will run from the 20^th to the 27^th of June 2026 and will be followed by a Fringe Festival running throughout July.  

The Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival is a community-led festival, coordinated by the endangered species conservation programme, Species on the Edge. Each year, local groups, businesses, charities and individuals pull together an inspiring programme of events celebrating the unique landscapes, cultural heritage and wildlife of the Outer Hebrides.  

From Lewis to Barra, the 2025 festival programme included guided walks, marine adventures, creative workshops and cultural events, allowing locals and visitors alike to explore, discover, and reconnect with the islands’ extraordinary biodiversity. 

One Wildlife Festival attendee, Sharon MacPherson, said: “Attending the Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival was such a rewarding experience and a great chance to slow down, listen and connect with the extraordinary landscapes and wildlife of these islands and the people working to celebrate and protect it.” 

Species on the Edge Programme Manager, Fiona Strachan, said: “The Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival offers a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the islands’ amazing and precious wildlife, as well as the land and people that have sustained them for generations. It also provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the struggles they are facing and how we can all play a part in supporting their survival. 

We would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who got involved in this year’s festival. The Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival would not be possible without all the groups, local businesses and individuals who put on such a fantastic array of events each year, and of course all those who come along and join in the celebration. We can’t wait to do it all again in 2026!” 

2025 Festival Highlights 

This year's festival offered something for everyone: boat tours, nature-based arts and crafts events, guided bird walks in English and Gaelic, snorkelling adventures, shorewatches, climate workshops, art and photography exhibitions, bumblebee safaris and more.  

A particular highlight of the programme was the multidisciplinary art project 'Keening: Song of the Stranding' by Visual Artist Sam Gare, Musicians Alex South, Nerea Bello and Katherine Wren and Choreographer Aya Kobayashi, commemorating the mass pilot whale stranding in North Tolsta in 2023. Sam led workshops during the Festival, inviting participants to remember the whales through the creation of life-size whale puppets.  

The project then culminated in a collaborative act of remembrance at Traigh Mhòr beach – the site of the 2023 stranding - bringing together science, music and art to honour and mourn the 55 stranded whales. The memorial featured live music specially composed for the event, the eight puppets created through the community workshops, and attendees on the day worked together to create sand sculptures of the whales. As the day went on, the tide gradually reclaimed the sand whales back to the sea. 

Sam Gare said: “Standing on that beach, working alongside so many people, it felt like we were all connected, to each other, to the place, and to the whales. I hoped that what we created together offered a space for people to reflect, to remember, and to let some of the emotion of the stranding settle. It was a real honour to be part of something so thoughtful and collective.” 

The Hebridean Whale & Dolphin Trust (HWDT) hosted a series of events throughout the festival, leading festival goers in shorewatch surveys, looking for and recording sightings of marine mammals. The charity also led a group aboard MV Loch Seaforth - the Stornoway-Ullapool CalMac ferry - to look out for whales, dolphins and porpoises from the water. 

Sadie from HWDT said: “The Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival was fantastic to be a part of. It showcased the biodiversity in the area and the different ways people could get involved in citizen science. For HWDT, taking part increased our reach to new audiences, engaging them in using our citizen science Whale Track app to help record and report sightings.” 

Sharon, who attended multiple events throughout the Festival, said: “It was a privilege to attend a selection of events which celebrated the island’s unique landscapes, biodiversity and cultural heritage. I joined the Balranald Machair Guided Walk for a close-up exploration of this rare and fragile machair habitat. I then attended the Bumblebee G&T event run by North Uist Distillery and Bumblebee Conservation Trust, an engaging session which coupled gin-tasting with discussion of the important role bees play in sustaining both biodiversity and our everyday lives.  

I attended RSPB’s Cuairt cainnt na h-eoin / The Language of Birds event where we were reminded how deeply the rhythms of birdlife are tied into Gaelic culture and storytelling. Lastly, I visited this year’s Wildlife Festival Art Exhibition at An Lanntair in Stornoway and attended Sam Gare’s ‘In the Wake of Whales’ workshop, a poignant creative community response to the 2023 pilot whale stranding." 

Find out more about the Outer Hebrides Wildlife Festival and how you can get involved on the Festival website: www.outerhebrideswildlifefestival.co.uk