We work to protect Tanera’s historic buildings and landscapes for our communities, while promoting arts, culture, and traditional skills. By using and teaching heritage skills and enabling communal recreation, we bring communities together, create economic opportunities and connect people in this remote part of the world.
Construction work is at the heart of the Tanera project. On the island itself we have built or restored more than 35 buildings to meet a great variety of needs - from accommodation and collective or community hospitality, to the technical, operational and even the spiritual. This work has driven economic and social opportunity, with over 120 people working on the island at any one time, and supporting heritage skills like dry stone walling and weaving. To date, the Tanera team, with the help of charitable guests and volunteers have built more than five miles of tracks and footpaths. Pathbuilding is a collective endeavour which opens up areas of the island for walking and calm reflection, whilst protecting delicate restoration projections from human footfall.
Our collaborations with Achiltibuie Primary and Ullapool High School engage the next generation with the Tanera Project while preserving cultural heritage. We host groups from local schools on the island - including ones made up of Gaelic students from Ullapool High School. Local children take part in our beach cleaning work, and local high school students have had work experience with our team. We plan to launch hands-on Tanera apprenticeships for local, school age people.
In 2020, we acquired two Herring luggers, the Clan Gordon and the St. Vincent. They have logged over 200 hours of sailing, training our team and local volunteers while preserving these important pieces of Scottish fishing history. Local boatyards contributed 16,000 hours of skilled work, keeping them fully operational and generating ongoing opportunities.A restored loom produces Tanera’s own tweed, a cultural centerpiece and symbol of the island and its people. Beyond reviving a heritage craft, it serves as a social hub where guests, volunteers, and locals share stories. Around 240 metres of tweed have been woven in four patterns and colourways. We have also hosted workshops in sailmaking, breadmaking, art, writing, flower arranging, and land management.
The Bothan fund, named for the restored building at the Badentarbat Pier, receives donations from the community around us and from visitors to the area. We contribute the building itself for use by the community. And proceeds from the tea, coffee and cake sales there go to the fund. People can apply to the Bothan fund for small-scale financial assistance - or for support in-kind from our skilled workforce. The fund has so far supported the RNLI, Coigach Community Rowing Club, Little Loch Broom Marine Life, and the North West Highlands Geopark.
Am Bothan Community Fund