About
The Coigach Candle Collection.
Candles poured with love since 2018 - now my full-time craft
Coigach on the North West coast of Scotland is unique. From land-shaping storms to tropical-paradise sunsets, life here is exhilarating.
Each Ali Mac Candle contains a piece of life on this windy coastline - a life close to the weather and all its challenges and pleasures, a life that moves in time with the passage of the seasons. It’s a place that holds folk close, whose magic keeps people coming back year after year. Life here is at a slower pace.
After a walk in the hills with your four-legged friend, to then cosy up by a wood-burning stove with a good book, a hand-poured candle and a wee dram… well, life doesn’t get much better… does it?
That connection to the West Coast and nature shapes everything I make. Each scent is chosen not just to smell good, but to have a purpose - to relax, refresh, motivate, or bring nostalgia. The scents call attention to important pieces of Coigach, from the Highland Heather in Wee Mad Road-to the Sea Salt of the crashing waves on Coigach beach's.
My first jar collection, The Coigach Collection, is inspired by my home, friends, family, and of course Scout Dog and the gang. Every candle has its own unique story. Now hand-poured full-time in my wee house in Achnahaird.
About Ali Mac
My heart has always called me back to the beautiful area of Coigach - my home and where I grew up. The area and community mean a great deal to me. After University in Edinburgh studying Marine Biology, travelling around America, a year in Australia and visits to many more countries, Coigach is always where I wanted to be.
Living in such a remote area, employment is tough. For years I balanced candle-making alongside other work - from promoting sustainable fishing at SALT Sea Food Kitchen, to working with the Tanera Project on the Isle of Tanera Mor. I’m grateful for every bit of it, and for the people I met along the way.
In 2023 I built my wee house in Achnahaird. It’s here that I live with my animal family, and I’ve now made Ali Mac Candles my full-time life. Every candle is poured by my own hands, in the place that’s shaped me.
My family’s roots here stretch back over 200 years, and I feel that history every day - in the ruins down by the crofts where the ponies and sheep still graze, in the lazy beds and peat banks that fed folk and kept the fire burning, and in the stones once lifted by hand to carve out a life and endure here. I often find myself wondering about the generations who walked this path before me. Now, I get to add my own small flame to that story.
About Ali Mac:
