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Marion MacLeod and Anne Campbell are standing on the edge of a sprawling expanse of purple heather and peat bog, swatting at midges and trying to describe their fears.
The turbines will be everywhere, they say, gesturing north and south. There could be as many as 500 on three separate wind farms, and they will dominate the largely flat landscape in every direction.

They will be up to 460ft tall -- the height of a 40-storey building -- and on a windy day could produce nearly two per cent of Britain's power.

The two women are looking out across Barvas Moor near Stornoway, the proposed site of by far the biggest wind farm in Europe.

To the casual observer, it looks like the ideal location. The westerly winds blow unhindered from the Atlantic and the mountains of Harris, 25 miles to the south, are the most striking element of a largely featureless habitat.

But the moor is protected under European law for its important wildlife and it has a special place in the hearts of native islanders. Its small lochs boast some of the finest brown trout fishing in Britain, it is home to the golden eagle and the red deer, and it has been celebrated in poetry and song.

The two women have been told that wind power will bring great economic benefits to the island, help regenerate the economy and halt the population decline. But they are part of a Gaelic uprising against the national "dash to wind" and, like many other islanders, are campaigning for the first time in their lives.

The development of renewable energy is a major plank of the Government's strategy to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from conventional power stations, in order to meet its commitments on global warming.
But critics, among them eminent scientists, say the lack of a strategic approach has created a free-for-all that could blight wild landscapes for generations to come.

Smaller wind farms have been welcomed elsewhere, but the scale of the development proposed for the Western Isles has shocked islanders and conservationists.

Among those who regard Lewis as the right place for a wind-fired power station is Brian Wilson, the former energy minister, who is normally a champion of Gaelic-speaking crofters.
He has promoted community buy-outs of private estates and waged war against absentee lairds, often through the West Highland Free Press, a newspaper which he founded.
But native islanders claim he is now ignoring their concerns, and one protester said his holiday home on the west coast of the island was "one of the few places from which the turbines would not be seen".
They are particularly unhappy that "his newspaper" claimed earlier this year that the protesters were largely middle-class incomers.

Miss MacLeod, 38, a primary school teacher, and Miss Campbell, 42, an artist and crofter, are members of the recently formed Gaelic protest group Mointeach gun Mhuileann, or Moors Without Turbines. Their families have lived on Lewis and grazed their sheep on the moor for hundreds of years.

Miss Campbell said: "It is the quality of life and the beautiful environment that has kept many people on the islands and that could be destroyed by wind farms.
"I have never been involved in politics before, but we are not going to go away. We will take this to the European courts if necessary.
"Our council and our politicians are not in tune with what the people feel. We are not interested in the money we might get. It doesn't matter how much we are offered."

One small scheme has already received approval, and the biggest project, an application by Amec, a multi-national construction company also involved in projects in Iraq, for 234 turbines in a 700MW development, will be considered next. Even on its own, it would be the largest wind farm in Europe.

If it goes ahead, the power will be taken to the mainland by an underwater cable and then by pylons across the Highlands from Ullapool -- where another protest is under way. Sir Paul McCartney yesterday joined the mainland campaign, which aims to stop the construction of 200 hundred pylons straddling Scotland.

Amec announced its £600 million scheme in December and says it could put £6 million a year into the local economy. A spokesman said the firm was aware that a telephone poll found that 88 per cent of islanders in villages affected by the proposal were against it.
He added that the company hoped to demonstrate in the next few months that the project could regenerate the local economy and bring major benefits, particularly in terms of jobs.
 

Low frequency noise caused by giant wind turbines is exposing thousands of people to a form of torture, a GP warned yesterday. People living near any of Scotland's wind farms risk headaches, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, depression and sleepless nights, says Dr Amanda Harry. She claims the Government has done no research into the effects of giant turbines and that plans to increase the number of wind farms in Scotland by 80 per cent were "crazy and sad".

The GP, whose Cornwall home is next to a planned wind farm, held a survey of residents living within a mile of turbines at Bears Down near Padstow. Of 14 people interviewed, 13 repeatedly suffered at least one of the symptoms. One couple said they booked into a B&B to get a night's sleep and are now on holiday in Malta to escape the whirring blades.

Dr Harry said: "The wind turbine industry takes no account of low-frequency noise. This is not a noise we can usually hear. It's something often felt as a vibration. We're talking about something which some governments have used as a form of torture -- even considered as a battlefield weapon."

Her warning comes as the Scottish Executive pushes for more wind farms to be built to meet renewable energy targets. Alison Hill, of the British Wind Energy Association, said last night: 'There are 50,000 wind turbines in the world. Many have been operating for years. I think we would have noticed by now if there was a health problem.'
 

Your correspondent replying to David Bellamy's letter on wind farms says that he cannot hear any noise when standing underneath the blades of a wind turbine (Letter, Sep 5). This is a phenomenon well understood by developers who will encourage anyone threatened by a wind farm to seek out a convenient turbine and stand underneath it to satisfy themselves that there is no noise problem and thus no cause to object to their plans.

The reality of the matter is somewhat different. The noise perceived by those living within a mile or more of a wind farm, and particularly if downwind, is caused by the pressure wave that is generated each time a turbine blade passes the mast. For a single turbine these broad-band pressure fluctuations are not excessively intrusive, but where several turbines operate in proximity the pulses move into and out of phase, creating a doubling, tripling or more in the sound level, depending on how many turbines are grouped together.

Several low-magnitude pulse trains thus cause noise with an unexpectedly strong impulsive character whenever they synchronise. This is inaudible close to each individual turbine but is known to be the cause of considerable distress at greater distances. The effect is much more noticeable at night due to the greater differential between air flow at ground level and hub height and also the greater sound-carrying capability of the cooler night air.

The wind industry and the Department of Trade and Industry are not unaware of the problem but prefer to ignore it. Instead, they rely on research completed in 1997 that has little relevance to the serious low-frequency noise problems arising from the latest generation of monster wind turbines. This is disgraceful but sadly symptomatic of the whole wind power ethos.