Western Isles half marathon season 2027 is officially open… after the Benbecula event went live for entries a couple of weeks ago.

Entries opened on Friday 25 September and half the allocated places had gone within the first 24 hours. There were 115 runners signed up at the time of writing, suggesting Benbecula could be set for a bumper year,

There are currently 150 places available but event organisers are willing to extend that to 200 places if there is demand.

The Benbecula Half Marathon and 10K will take place on 29 May and usually takes place one week after the Stornoway half, making it one of the earlier island half marathons in the season.

It will also take place next year as part of the Heb 3/5 Challenge, which came back in 2026 and which challenges runners to complete three or all five of the island half marathons in one summer. As well as Stornoway and Benbecula, there are other half marathons in Harris, Barra and Skye.

Skye has already opened for entries and offers many more places than the Western Isles races. Barra usually opens in January – and sells out famously quickly, typically in less than four minutes.

Last year, the Benbecula half marathon opened for entries in October and had sold 100 places by December.

Graham MacLeod, one of the organisers of the event, said: “It’s obviously gone a lot quicker and a lot better than the 2026 race so far. We had initially opened up to 150 but if it goes well we’re going to open up to 200, which is probably what we’ll end up doing.”

Selling 200 places would put the Benbecula half on a par with Harris for size. Stornoway usually offers around 250 places and Barra is usually capped at 300.

Graham said: “If we can get up to 200 signed up or even actually starting we would love it because we are the smallest out of the five.”

He thinks increased activity on their social media might have helped interest, plus good t-shirts. Also, there were a lot of runners down from Stornoway in 2026 and he believes word of mouth about the event has helped with the entries so far.

The return of the Heb 3/5 Challenge probably also helped, encouraging more sign ups, as nearly half of all those – 51 at the time of writing – who have entered Benbecula have ticked the box in their online entry to say they are planning to run it as part of the Heb 3/5.

In general, this is the best start to entry numbers the new committee have had since taking over the event in January 2025. Previously, it had last taken place before Covid.

In their first year, in 2025, they sold around 125 entries and 82 runners started on the day.

There are four on the organising committee. Joining Graham are Gemma Ferguson, Scott Richardson and Clare Campbell.

Graham is also one of the organisers of the Heb 3/5 and he thanked MacAulay Askernish, also known as MAL Civils, for sponsoring the challenge.

He also thanked the main sponsor of the Benbecula half – Benbecula Distillery, who have recently signed up again as main sponsor for the next three years.

Other sponsors are the Dark Island Hotel and J MacDonald Plumbing & Heating.

Looking ahead, Graham said the most stressful element of the preparation would be worrying about the weather – “hoping the weather stays reasonable and that people get here in the first place.” He admitted their 2025 and 2026 races had been “fairly breezy runs…”

When the weather is not too “breezy”, though, Benbecula is regarded as having the best ‘personal best’ potential out of all the island half marathons as it is the flattest.

Overall, Graham said: “As the committee, we are really happy that it’s coming back and it’s really kind of pleasing because it brings people to the island and brings people back and gets the locals out running as well. We’re trying to build a community feel to the race as well, which is good, and we hopefully have done that.”

The Benbecula half is followed by a ceilidh and the event has a charity sponsor, which in 2027 will be WICCI (Western Isles Cancer Care Initiative). WICCI will receive any additional donations from sign ups and the proceeds from the ceilidh.

Early bird entries are available until 31 December, at £28 plus fees, and go up after that. Proceeds will go towards supporting North Uist Amateur Athletics Club (NUAAC) to help the youngsters.

To sign up for 2027 click here.

To follow the Benbecula Half Marathon and 10K on Facebook click here.

All pictures courtesy of the Benbecula Half Marathon and 10K organising committee.