Who are we?

We’re Horshader Community Development Ltd, a real live village-owned not-for-profit company formally set up in May 2005 to plan, build and run a dinky community windfarm for the good people of South Shawbost, Dalmore and Dalbeg on the west coast of the beautiful Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides.

Almost every adult in these townships is a Company member, is kept regularly updated on developments and has a chance every year to turn up at a public meeting and stand for election to the Board.

We spent two years commissioning and analysing a very detailed Feasibility Study on the practicalities of erecting a 3-turbine windfarm on the plateau of Ben Horshader, one of the “Six Hills of Home”, via an access road across the grazings of Dalmore and Dalbeg.

However, the Island grid is at full capacity and will remain so until 2013, which means that the 3-turbine model would not be accepted for connection to the grid because it would (ironically) produce too much electricity (3.9 MW).  We have, therefore, taken the decision to pursue a smaller project with a single turbine of around 850 kW.  The proposed site is on the south side of the main road, opposite the Norse Mill car park, where there is easy access via the peat road next to the old quarry.  This would have the advantages of avoiding the need for expensive infrastructure and it is also close to the existing 11 kV grid lines, simplifying the connection.

Where are we?

South Shawbost, Dalmore and Dalbeag are in the parish of Barvas on the north-west coast of the splendid Isle of Lewis, Britain’s largest offshore island and surely the King of the Hebrides. Our townships are at the same northerly latitude as North Tolsta, on the east coast of our island, and Lybster on the east coast of the mainland.

A traditional economy centred on crofting, fishing and Harris Tweed weaving has in recent years shifted more into one dependent on assorted service jobs in the public sector and, especially for young men, regularly offshore deployment in the North Sea oil industry and the Merchant Navy.

We continue to lose young people – especially school-leavers – in very large numbers to Stornoway and the mainland and a continued transmigration of incomers from the mainland – though enriching the community in many ways – is forcing enormously rapid cultural and social change.

Though we enjoy excellent medical provision and, in Shawbost, a first-class combined primary and junior secondary school (which also boasts very good sports facilities), our general amenities are very limited and revenues from the planned community wind farm, would go a long way to improving our quality of life.

That was sadly underlined last summer by the cruel and generally unexpected closure of the KM Holdings Tweed Mill in Shawbost – though not in recent years as mighty an employer as once it had been, quite a few neighbours lost their jobs and the impact on community morale was serious.

If you want to come and visit us, we boast between our three townships three splendid beaches – that at Dalmore, with its surf and sea-stacks, being perhaps the most spectacular – the amazing artefacts of Shawbost School Museum; a vast and wholly unspoiled landscape; an amazing range of birds and wildlife; and some seriously good walks over moor and hill.

Oh, and we hope you like our logo. Devised by Stephen MacLeod of Garenin, Carloway, it was the stand-out winner in a competition organised for the pupils of Shawbost School. Stephen got a £50 voucher to treat himself at Woolworths. We got a touch of class.

Oh, and we’re seriously nice folk, with a unique way of life and community values still heavily influenced by the Christian Gospel.

Archaeologists confirm our townships have been continuously inhabited since at least the days of the Beaker People, who lived around 2,000 BC and whose fragmented pottery can still regularly be found here and there along the coast. We would like to point out, however, that none of them presently serve on the Board.