"Machair" was written in English and translated into Gaelic, then given English subtitles and broadcast during primetime. At first, critics thought this process would not work, but when the show aired it got lots of praise from reviewers. Kenneth Roy, television critic of Scotland on Sunday, described it as "A credit to the company (Scottish Television) and a smack in the face to those of us who were doubtful" and after a few episodes said "It is even better than it looked at first glance quite simply the best thing to have happened to television in Scotland for a long time." Audiences liked the show too. "Machair" got 30% audience share and made it into the Top Ten of programmes viewed in Scotland, even though fewer than 2% of the Scottish population can speak Gaelic. It was nominated for awards for production and writing from "The Celtic Film Festival" and Writers Guild of Great Britain.