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Balivanich is the main settlement on Benbecula, a flat island causeway-linked between North and South Uist, and is the site of the Western Isles airfield. The settlement grew up around the former RAF base and retains a semi-institutional character, but the surrounding croft land and the famous Uist machair provide exceptional foraging conditions. Benbecula's machair — a flower-rich shell-sand grassland on the Atlantic shore — is among the finest in Britain, carpeted with white clover, bird's-foot trefoil, thyme, and ragged robin from June through August. The tidal flats and dune systems on the western shore carry sea rocket, sea campion and other maritime flowers.

Machair — the distinctive shell-sand grassland of the Atlantic coast — is the most celebrated forage environment of the Western Isles, supporting wild thyme, clover, bird's-foot trefoil, ragged robin and corn marigold in summer on North and South Uist and western Benbecula. White clover and red clover on improved croft grassland provide the main June-to-August flow across all the islands. Heather on the Lewis and Harris moorland — one of the largest continuous heather blankets in Britain — is the defining late-season flow, running from late July through September; bell heather predominates on the drier ground. Sycamore in the Lews Castle grounds and town parks around Stornoway provides a productive May flow in the only sizeable urban forage zone. Gorse is abundant on the roadsides and rough ground of Lewis and Harris from March into June. Bramble flowers on disturbed ground and roadsides throughout the islands from July into September. Ivy on older stone buildings and walls closes the season in October for colonies in more sheltered positions.