The buyout of the Bays of Harris estate has taken a major step forward after the Scottish Land Fund agreed to fully fund the purchase. It now looks hopeful that the purchase of the estate, which extends across to Berneray, will be concluded this year.

The route from Ardrossan to Campbeltown was serviced by MV Isle of Arran The Scottish government says it is committed to bringing back a ferry service between Ayrshire and Campbeltown.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland raised concerns last year about some of the care provided at Western Isles Hospital. A watchdog says improvements have been made at a hospital previously criticised for treating children in adult wards due to a shortage of trained nurses.

MV Isle of Islay will soon make the two-week journey to Scotland and is expected to enter service in early spring.

A farm on Luing has found an unexpected way to support wildlife, rural jobs and year-round tourism, thanks in part..... to cattle dung.

Calls have been made for an urgent investigation into 'golden goodbyes' across the public sector after ministers insisted they knew nothing about the extent of a huge secret pay off to 'sacked' boss of state-owned ferry operator Robbie Drummond.

Former Uist police officer Ian McCorquodale has been confirmed by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, as a member of the Western Isles NHS Board. McCorquodale, who joined the health board last August, has been appointed for four years and will run from August 18, 2025, to August 17, 2029.

A previous study on the Sound of Jura showed that as a result of higher survival rates for young species, the number of flapper skates in the Marine Protected Area (MPA) was increasing faster than outside.

Disabled passengers travelling by ferry between Arran and the mainland were forced to remain on a minibus during the journey due to a lift fault.

Eilean a' Chapuill is found just off the Knapdale peninsula in the Highlands.

Islanders will have a new sea wall to protect themselves against flooding as part of a multi-million pound project from North Ayrshire Council. Work on the ambitious Isle of Cumbrae flood protection scheme is set to start at the end of this month and should be ready for the start of the summer season.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop has confirmed that CalMac’s former chief executive received a severance package over the legal limit for unscrutinised payments.

The dolphins were spread around 800 metres apart on a beach on the Island of Westray on Tuesday. Rescuers have successfully refloated six dolphins, including two calves, after a “challenging” mass stranding in Orkney.

Transport Scotland’s planned community needs assessment for Barra and Vatersay has intensified local concerns over ferry capacity, accountability and chronic operational failures. For more than a year, islanders have warned that losing the MV Isle of Lewis would weaken Barra’s lifeline. Now references to the MV Clansman in planning documents produced by Transport Scotland are being viewed locally as signalling reduced capacity ahead.

A football club in the Isle of Lewis has started turning an overgrown area into a new training pitch with funding from NHS Western Isles. Carloway Football Club said the green space, next to its main pitch, would be used for team exercises and community activities.

Researchers at The James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen, in partnership with Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), are exploring how different Bere barley varieties perform across a wide range of environments in Scotland and beyond. This includes work with seaweed in South Uist, and bere strains originating in North Uist.

Geller acquired the small island off the coast of North Berwick, in 2009.

A new Co-op supermarket could be coming to Tobermory, right across the road from where the council plans to build the new Tobermory Campus.

Campaigners are calling for an end to a tradition of hunting young seabirds on an uninhabited Scottish island.

The accounts for a troubled community buyout in the Outer Hebrides have not been filed on time, with directors expressing no confidence in the vice-chair of the group amid a bitter civil war.

Ministers have been urged to launch an investigation after it emerged the ‘fired’ chief executive of publicly funded lifeline ferry operator CalMac received more than £170,000 in annual pay after being removed from his post just three days into the year.

Sealladh na Beinne Mòire, the parent company of the South Uist community-owned estate, has missed the deadline to file its 2025 accounts.

A group of enthusiastic coach drivers have completed two days of hard graft at a historic Skye location.

A man has been arrested and charged in connection with a series of break-ins in Orkney. Police Scotland said the incidents happened at six separate locations in Kirkwall between November 2025 and January 2026.

The indigenous rock dove population in Uist are the most genetically pure population so far known in the world. With the least feral pigeon ancestry, the rock doves are currently the  “wildest” studied to date.