It started with a simple conversation not long after we moved from London to the Isle of Tiree, a dot in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland. Slowing down and travelling was on our list. Taking in an orphan lamb to rescue her from the dinner table was most certainly not. Yet, that is what we did. And somehow one lamb turned into seven in the space of a few weeks. And seven adds up to a flock.

A year later, Noah, Kelp, Popcorn, Bubble, Nori, Dot and Matrix were thriving and we made room for more. Jeff, Rocky, Adrian, Athena, Serg and Pepper arrived. All these lambs are here to stay. And to help give them long and happy lives we had an idea. We could use their wool to make woolly hats. After all, who doesn’t like a woolly hat? We do! So WELAN was born, our wooly hat shop.

Making our handmade woolly hats isn’t easy. It’s been about learning things the long, hard and sometimes stupid way. But we believe the hard work translates into simple, local and lasting results.

We hope it’s a story that inspires others to move here to live and work. A story that motivates people to breathe new life into skills that have been albeit forgotten. A story which inspires people to try new and innovative things on Tiree.

That’s why 10% of our profit is put into our WELAN® Tiree Made island fund which is used to help more orphaned lambs just like Popcorn, Rocky, Dot and Matrix. It’s also to help other people to move towards their own inspiring life on the Isle of Tiree. That’s WELAN, Tiree Made. In Scotland.

Moving to this little island in Scotland made us look at the world through new eyes. We learnt that we didn’t need all that much to be happy and so we went right back to basics. No need for nasty chemicals or noisy industrial machines for our woolly hats. We love making and we love preparing, carding, spinning and knitting our Tiree wool. We developed a method for making your woolly hat which embodies our Tiree Made thinking. Simple, local and lasting.…

You could say it’s a labour of love, every woolly hat, and every item of jewellery is totally unique and a one-off, made just for you. Our local Tiree wool is completely ethical and natural, and every item you buy helps our flock of orphan sheep live out their natural lives. One wooly hat at a time.