Machair

A machair (Scottish Gaelic pronunciation: [ˈmaxɪɾʲ]; sometimes machar in English) is a fertile low-lying grassy plain found on part of the northwest coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides.

[3] The word is used in a number of Irish, Scottish and Manx placenames to refer to low-lying fertile ground or fields, even in areas where no machair has ever been supported.

[5] The soil is low in a number of key nutrients, including trace elements such as copper, cobalt and manganese, which makes it necessary to feed cattle supplements or take them to summer pastures elsewhere.

[5] The sandy soil does not hold nutrients well, making artificial fertilisers ineffective and limiting the crops that can be grown to certain strains of oats and rye, and bere barley.

Kelp in the sea next to the machair softens the impact of waves, reducing erosion, and when it is washed ashore by storms, forms a protective barrier on the beach.

Arable and fallow machair is threatened by changes to the way the land is managed, where the original system of crofts is under threat from a reduction in the number of crofters and the use of "modern" techniques.

[5][10][11] In January 1993, the storm which ran MV Braer aground off Shetland eroded 3 metres (9.8 feet) of machair along the entire length of Uist and Barra.