To ask if anyone lives on a small Scottish Island?

OP, you could look at Moray Coast eg Nairn, Elgin, Forres area. Beautiful countryside, mild climate, close to Inverness Airport and Raigmore Hospital. A more practical choice than island life, I'd think

I am from a small Scottish island. The lifestyle is great for children and I’m sure your child would thrive. Winters can be hard but can’t they be hard everywhere? I would possibly try it short term even over the winter to see if it is for you. We have people move here and are gone under 6 months because it is too different for them and certainly not what they expected.

To those saying the days are short in winter - that is very true, but in summer the days are very, very long, with it still being light around 10pm at night, or later. I live in a small rural village in Argyll on the west coast and rely on a ferry to get to the nearest hospital, so there are drawbacks. The positives are - great sense of community, the most beautiful scenery, a very laid-back way of life, and a tiny GP surgery with one doctor who nearly always can fit you in the day after you phone for an appointment. There are other islands you may want to consider which aren't so remote as the ones you mention, for example, Bute or Arran. But always you have to factor in the ferry availability to get to the mainland.

I suggest you at least visit for a time before making such an enormous change. Lots of people have somewhat unrealistic ideas about island life. And tend not to last long.

I live on South Uist and have family on Eday. Eday is very small, has limited services and few opportunities for employment.The ferry crisis doesn't seem to have hit Orkney in quite the same way that it has hit us, but that could change. I would advise spending time.e there over the winter and seeing how you cope. Not e eryone can.

Have you ever actually visited either of the islands? Or Scotland for that matter? It seems a move that is solely financially motivated. I think you'll have a massive shock moving up here from the south coast tbh. Would you consider a move to rural Russia?

This is excellent advice.

Personally, if you do decide to relocate, I'd try and narrow down the area first. Take a few visits and see what suits you best - there is a huge difference between Orkney and the Hebrides. If you are set on the West Coast, have you considered Ardnamurchan? Beautiful area with a definite sense of remoteness, but on the mainland.

Finally, a PP recommended watching Highland Cops - a great suggestion!

My neighbour and friend visited friends on a bigger island who had a farm. They loved the lifestyle and I think considered moving but then decided against it.

Of course you would - you've been clear about that! I'd suggest this isn't a great place to ask - scotsnet might be a better bet as you might have more chance of people with real lived experience giving advice. There's a fair bit of assumption and ignorance in the responses here. If you want more specific advice for the Oban area, which might also suit your needs, feel free to message me.

Have a look at the Angus Glens on the south-eastern edge of the Highlands. Wild open spaces, sparsely populated, in the Cairngorms National Park, with dramatic mountain scenery (especially in Glen Clova and Glen Doll). It’s in easy reach of Kirriemuir and Edzell, and just 40 minutes or so from Dundee with a big teaching hospital and lots of supermarkets, as well as Broughty Ferry with its charming boutiques, restaurants and gorgeous sandy beach.

We moved to an island more than 20 years ago when DS was just a baby. Despite both of us working in the community all this time our friends are all incomers. Jobs are easy to come by here but tend to be either in the Co-op or hospitality, which can be seasonal. DS, baby groups and then school were a good way to integrate but islanders do very much stick together. It was a great place to bring up DS and even though he’s now on the mainland we have no intention to leave just yet but lack of social care may force us to when we’re elderly. Every mainland visit involves packing toiletries and clean pants because you just don’t know for sure that you’ll get home the same day. Winters are long and harsh. As you homeschool can you rent an Air B&B for a few weeks next February and see how it goes? I’d say that even if you go to a remote part of the mainland, too.

I'm sure you are doing your very best OP . Things certainly aren't easy.
I would imagine it might be a hard environment if you weren't born and raised there.

Just a thought.

Why those two islands? Wouldn’t it be better to start on say a bigger island like mainland Orkney? Or one of the isles you can commute to the mainland Orkney e.g. Rousay.

I go to Shetland/Orkney with work every year, so get to chat to the locals. I imagine if you moved it would be easier to integrate if you worked in local businesses/the school/the GP practice etc.

Also if your son does sports for example, the extra travel and cost can really mount up.

Like a previous poster I might survive mainland Orkney or Shetland, but the outlying islands definitely not!

He needs to be diagnosed and supported and not far from the services he may need one day

I didn't realise that, I thought they said they'd moved there for his partner's cheese making business or something like that 🤔. Oh well, a different life for the celebs!

Seems she wants to take a SEN child perhaps away from any possible supports and helps....what happens when the child grows and need employment or benefits??

If that is the Graeme MacRae Burnett book, it is heavily fictionalised. The account of the murders is correct but everything else isn't. E.g. Malcolm, who spends his time drinking and wanking after the murders in the book, actually married and raised a large family in Liniclate. Marion didn't "vanish" but remained in Liniclate for the rest of her life. GMB missed out the oldest sister, who was married with children and who lived close to the murdered parents, to make the family seem odd and isolated.

It seems OP that things have been very challenging. School hasn't worked out, on going trauma in the area.

This seems a big leap. Anyhow , hope it goes well. I a somebody who stalks the seconds of light after December 21st, something of an obsession.

When I was about 8, @NewStartFamily, my parents decided to move us to a tiny village on the side of a hill in Shropshire, because they wanted somewhere with a big garden. It worked perfectly for them - they loved the area, mum had a massive garden, dad grew vegetables, raised hens for eggs, and got interested in local history.

I hated it. Dsis and I were sent to a tiny village school - 10 pupils in the Infants and 18 in the Juniors - where every single other pupil had known each other pretty much since birth, and we were total outsiders. I was bullied in the Juniors and then worse when I went to secondary school. It only stopped when I went to Sixth Form college, by which time the life long damage to my mental health and self esteem was irreparable.

We had no social life - there was no transport to or from the village, apart from a bus to the local town on Wednesday morning then home the same afternoon - during school hours so no use to teenagers. The nearest bus stop with an hourly service in each direction was 2 miles walk away, and the tickets were way, way above my pocket money. Mum didn’t drive, and dad commuted an hour’s drive to work, and home, so didn’t want to do extra driving at the weekends - so there was almost no chance of dsis or I going to a friend’s house, or a party or even a school social event. We were very isolated - I think dsis did have one good friend who lived close by, but I didn’t even have that. I spent my teenage years sitting alone in my bedroom, reading. It was horribly lonely and isolated.

It could have been better, if my parents had had any thought for the impact their decision to move would have on us, but from my point of view, all they cared about was getting their rural idyll. I think they just assumed we would be happy, and didn’t bother to check whether we were.

When dh and I were considering a move, from Essex to near Glasgow, with our three dses, we sat down with them and talked it all through, to make sure that they were happy with the move, and we made sure we picked somewhere to live that would be good for them as they grew up - good transport links, not isolated, a good secondary school, and a good sized community, so there would be plenty of opportunities to make friends.

This move might work for you, but please learn from my experience - think long and hard about what you are giving up for your son, and how much you will have to do, to support him in having a full social life and friendships.