Future Island-Island Impact Cards: The Story of Rathlin Wool

The Story of Rathlin Wool
Challenge
This Design Fellowship, The Story of Rathlin Wool, uses storytelling to highlight the regenerative potential of wool, rooted in Rathlin Island’s unique cultural and ecological landscape. Through an illustrated book, it explores vital connections between people, land, and sustainability - inviting reflections on waste, identity, and the need for community-led ecological renewal.
Approach
The project features a partnership between a Rathlin islander and local artist and centres on deep collaboration with the island and its wool. The illustrations have a gentle, earthy style that create an illustrated book through iterative stages - sketching, pacing, final artwork, and print preparation - integrating feedback throughout to ensure authenticity, educational value, and emotional resonance.
Outcomes
The project has created a short, illustrated book telling the story of Rathlin wool, as it moves through the landscape from farmer, shearer, tractor, ferry driver, trailer, fleece grader, seaweed gatherer and dyer, knitter, and shopkeeper. Linked to the wider Rathlin Wool project, the book connects story, craft, farming, commerce and place. By weaving together heritage, craft, and environmental consciousness, the book inspires both local and global audiences to reimagine resilience and regeneration through the lens of
place-based storytelling.
Learnings
The project fosters education on sustainability and island life, celebrates Rathlin’s farming and wool heritage, and showcases the work of FII and local residents. It highlights the challenges and beauty of island livelihoods, honours often unseen contributions, and demonstrates how storytelling can preserve culture and practice, linking people, land, and tradition through low-carbon, regenerative, and circular approaches.
Impact
Through the co-creation of a new cultural artefact, The Story of Rathlin Wool fosters intergenerational understanding of sustainability, waste, and regeneration. It preserves Rathlin’s heritage, amplifies local voices, and offers an accessible entry point into circular practice and ecological thinking, stimulating cultural tourism, community pride, and deeper environmental engagement.