To ask if anyone lives on a small Scottish Island?

That's absolutely not a reliable, neutral source. My friend on South Uist is virtually stranded there because the ferries are so unreliable. The SNP have made a complete mess of it.

Nonsense put about by the anti SNP media. Calmac have very good reliability, considering the age of the ships. Tiree, I think, has had problems. But the BBC has interviewed people in Arran moaning about cancellations, when there were 14 sailings that same day. https://scottishindypod.scot/blogpost/calmac-best-in-world/

People migrating from the south coast/home counties/london to the Scottish highlands and islands so they can “have land” is a disgusting colonial hangover that absolutely needs to stop. I commend you for being honest about your reasons, but as a highlander it makes me both angry, and desperately upset. It’s a selfish, greedy and destructive practice.

Don’t live on a small island if you want to home educate and their are health and sn issues at play.

i grew up on a small island, it can be incredibly lonely for children even in school ( tiny mixed classes) we ended up moving when I was in secondary so I could access better education options and health options (I have autism) and it was amazing. We were still rural but living on the mainland was life changing. If you have to do an island go for a bigger one with a lot more people

Very Liz Jonesesque. 🤪

What type of use do you want to do with the land? Do you have experience with 'land' I'll presume farming of some sort.

@DisneyCinnamonBun
’It's obvious you have never relocated in a significant way and certainly not with a child. I have lived in several countries, each with its own language and had to settle in 4 types of places with new culture, language religion, people. Fairly well travelled and reasonably open minded I'd say 😂’

Wrong!!
im retired now but have lived in 23 different houses /apartments in 4 foreign countries ,including 3 different states in the US. And from Aberdeenshire to Berkshire in the Uk. Thanks to DH’s job. And have 3 kids.

OP, a friend moved from the Central Belt in Scotland back to her original small home town in NI when she retired. She still has a lot of family there. Met her after about a year and asked how it was going. She had found the relocation harder than expected and commented: "everybody knows your business, and if they don't, then they MAKE it their business to find out!" That will be amplified on a small island.

I grew up in a small, parochial village/parish. I know how gossip works in places like these. If you don't share your business, others will fill in the gaps for themselves - and entirely false and unhelpful assumptions will be made about you, your DH, your DS, your situation, and since you won't find out what they are, you'll never have the chance to correct them. Trivial things like whether you moved from Surrey or Sussex might not bother you, but people will generate false rumours about why your son isn't at school, eg "he must be like the McLeod boy, poor soul" - when 'the McLeod boy' is not only 40 but was brain damaged at birth and has a mental age of under 10, then you can see how this could negatively impact their perception of you and how they behave towards you.
I hope you find a location that works for your whole family.

Yes, I miss it! The fall foliage, the sea, the mountains, the clapboard houses with the big porches and gables...beautiful.

My VERY VERY FAVORITE part of the country!!

I was fortunate enough to live in Newport, RI for a year and it was like living in a dream.
I loved it.
If - no when I win the lottery I’m moving back.

Don’t you just love it there? ❤️

When I first moved to Scotland nearly 30 years ago, I experienced anti-English sentiment (although mostly fairly low-level - support anyone playing against the English football team type stuff). I am Scottish, was born here to Scottish parents, but have an English accent as we lived in England for 15 years. It was weird as I’d grown up in England identifying as Scottish, but a lot people here didn’t really see me as Scottish back then.

But I never experience anything like that anymore. And haven’t done for maybe 20 years. You do see it online on Facebook comments etc, but I suspect there are a lot of people deliberately stoking division in online spaces. I never meet people in real life like that. Even on the independence question, online discourse is angry and polarised, IRL I find most people are either private about their views on it, or happy to have a balanced discussion and respect different views.

I do see frustration with Westminster and London centric policy and media. Entirely justified and I think most people who live outside the SE of England can relate to that, I certainly saw it where I grew up in England. I am central belt, but through work I have spent a lot of time in rural Scotland and I have often experienced the same frustration and suspicion around central belt centric policy and media. Again, entirely justified. I don’t see widespread prejudice against the English, or Edinburgh, but people are rightly frustrated that their communities are often forgotten, ignored and/or stereotyped.

I hear a fair bit of anti-incomer sentiment with my work, even if it’s not overt, it’s still there. In some ways I understand it but also.. times change, people move, traditions are lost and new traditions created, that’s just life.

I have not heard of any anti-English sentiment where I am. Lots of people who live here and have done for decades are English. As far as I can see many people who arrive from elsewhere are contributing lots to the community.
people don’t talk about or think about politics any more than they do anywhere else. Nobody has ever discussed politics with me.
There are several churches in the community. There are people who attend but they are not big congregations and there is no religious pressure. Nobody has ever mentioned religion to me either. It really isn’t different from any other small rural community.

No, I don't think there is widespread anti-English feeling. I do think people get thoroughly pissed off with particular kinds of socially and culturally tone-deaf incomer behaviours, which can be correlated with rather than caused by being English. But plenty of English (and Lowland, and international) new arrivals who don't act that way fit in beautifully and flourish. The problem is that the people who do, assume that they are getting a negative reception because they are English, rather than understanding that it is because they are being a bit of an arse.

Yeah, I live near Edinburgh, and my mother in law recently moved to Orkney. She's frequently expressed disappointment that we hardly ever visit. I'm not sure what she expected, it takes twelve hours and costs hundreds of pounds to get there. With all the best will in the world, how often are we going to do that?

@Dumpspirospero again thanks for such a sensible post. Admittedly I don't live on an island, but I don't recognise at all these descriptions of anti-English hate and raging insularity in rural areas.

@NewStartFamily have you considered NE England? Lots of stunning areas. Dales Northumberland Coastal. We've had many southerners move to our area. Some beautiful cities and not far from Scotland.

Personal experiences and opinions differ.

Do you live on an island or the remote north of Scotland? I am almost certain you don’t because you are so wrong. I also didn’t say everything on the thread is tosh. There have been some great answers. (Especially the PP on Shetland) But there is a lot of ethnocentric nonsense from people who don’t know the islands. I used to have a job that took me all over the north of Scotland and the islands v regularly so I’ve visited and stayed on many of them. You have also misquoted just about everything I have written.
The weather on the islands and on our peninsula is not much different than it is in other parts of Scotland. Yes, it’s colder and wetter in the winter than the summer but I didn’t say it wasn’t. That’s winter for you. I said it was still as beautiful and interesting in winter and I loved it just as much. It’s a personal opinion. It’s a little bit darker earlier in winter but in mid-winter it is dark in central Scotland where I was born, about 4.30pm. In the summer it is lighter for longer. The exception is the remote northern islands like Orkney and Shetland. Winters are tougher there. Where I live on the remote peninsula, it’s not much different from Glasgow or Edinburgh. An island climate (which is what we also have) means the weather blows in and blows out. It can be v changeable.
In the last five years, the steep single track road that leads to our peninsula has been shut twice because of snow. There has been more snow in the central belt in that time. Also you can usually still leave by the coast road when the more direct route over the hill is closed.
It’s different on an island because the weather will prevent the ferry from sailing. But the main reason the ferries have not been running of late are the issues with late delivery of new ferries and the breakdown of the old ones. It’s a big scandal here and it is impacting islanders lives. But the point of my previous post was to suggest a highland location rather than an island one for that reason.
I did not say people do not buy houses in the north “because it is a tough and limited way to live” because that is not true. It’s not a tough and limited way to live. It used to be decades ago but not today. People live in the highlands and run their own businesses, work remotely or work locally. It’s the same as anywhere.
I said I made sure I wasn’t depriving a local family of a home when I decided to buy. The house I bought needed a lot of work and anyone local could have bought it in the previous five years when it was standing empty. The reason people don’t buy houses is because there is not a lot of suitable, affordable housing. Plus it’s a much smaller market than in the city. Hence the need to be sure before you buy. If you are moving to a remote or island community, you need to pull your weight. And you need to be aware of local sensibilities.
People who live in the Highlands go on holiday overseas all the time. It might take a little longer to drive to the airport and cost more but there are connecting flights daily from Inverness and Aberdeen. How do you think these airports survive if folk don’t use them to travel? People are used to driving long distances to get to places. That’s the trade off for living in a beautiful and remote place. Often people save their holidays and go to farther flung places as it makes more economic sense. Friends who live in Shetland have done three weeks in New Zealand and three weeks in Canada in the last 18 months. Friends where I live are heading by car to France for five weeks.
Ceilidhs and strupegs are not “novelties” and the novelty does not wear off. They are events that are organised all year round. They are the way people socialise if they want to be involved in the community. (It’s not mandatory). There are concerts and visiting bands mists months, lots of crafting activities, book groups, get togethers, cycling and wild swimming groups. There are environmental groups and lots of volunteering. There is plenty to do plus people living in remote places are used to entertaining themselves when they need to.
Id say about 40% or more in my community come from England. We get tourists from everywhere. It’s not a lifestyle for everyone and it’s clearly not the lifestyle for you but it’s important not to misrepresent Highland living.

When you say there's lots of work, it's going to be in limited fields and the OPs kids will likely have career goals that they'll want to go off and achieve and once they've gone to live their life, they won't be travelling back too much to see their parents because it's too difficult to do.

It's hardly fair call it all tosh! You aren't exactly telling the truth by pretending that winter is just as nice as summer in these far northern isles! That's simply not true! It's long, dark winters with lots of wind and rain would take a toll on a lot of people especially those not used to such long and at times powerful winters.

You've said yourself that nobody buys houses in these places because most people know it's a tough and limited way to live. You can't even go off on a holiday overseas somewhere from those islands because it would be so lengthy and expensive to get even to a simple holiday to Spain etc.

Going to the village hall for a ceilidh would be novel for a short time but once the novelty of that wears off there's not much to do on a remote island especially in the many months of crap weather. As I said on another post, it's also something people have to think about that climate change may make the weather even more extreme in these places.

@Dumpspirospero brilliant post. There are some people in Shetland who dislike incomers, and I dislike the word because some people can be horrible. But the comments on this thread that made it seem like all of us were SNP and/or anti English really irritated me. It's totally different here to most places in England or Mainland Scotland but it's diverse for all that. Shetland definitely is. And we welcome people who come and give to the community, sometimes simply by having a few children and increasing the school roll! It's interesting what you say about the remoteness of some parts of Wester Ross. I sometimes think that in Shetland we are less remote than you. 30 minutes takes me to the airport and within an hour I'm in Aberdeen. I don't know how long it takes you to drive to 'civilisation'.

@Dumpspirospero great post. Very much tallies with my own experience.

Gosh, OP there is an absolute load of tosh written on this thread about the Scottish Islands and the kind of people who live on them. I live in a very remote peninsula in Western Ross. It’s not an island but it’s very cut off. In the winter the population numbers about 250. It’s five times that in summer. It’s a wonderful, magical place and there are lots of “incomers”, many from England. We are incomers from a different part of Scotland.
I was very mindful when we moved here that we might not be welcome but that has not been the case. We bought a cottage that had been empty for five years and which had been on the market for five months. Nobody local wanted it. It had had no renovation for over 40 rears. So I was confident that we weren’t doing a local family out of a house. We spent over £100k rewiring it, replumbing and dealing with damp. Nearly all of that was spent locally and we kept four local tradesmen employed for 18 months. It’s really important to spend in the local community and give back where you can. There is a local shop, a local fish van, and two restaurants. To keep these facilities going, you need to use them.
The local primary school has fewer than a dozen children but incomers with children are very welcome. The school needs pupils and that is true of most highland and island primary schools. Pupils are weekly boarders for secondary school a few hours’ drive away.
It’s a really diverse community and people are mostly friendly. There is definitely an aging population and children and young people are important to keeping these fragile communities thriving. We have great internet (which I’m amazed at) and we also have mains water and sewage - a real luxury in remote communities. The water pressure is fantastic. Not always a given. We do have power cuts during storms but we have a wood burner, which is something of a necessity as there is no mains gas. Many people rent out part of their property or have a cabin or yurt in the garden or a separate little one-bed annexe as a B&B to supplement income. Sheep wander everywhere and pretty much everywhere is common grazing (apart from gardens).
I absolutely love it and it’s as wonderful in winter as it is in summer. The light is so diffuse and the wildlife is amazing. There are lots of ceilidhs and strupegs in the village hall. There’s a lively community association. Locals swim in the sea and have book groups. Is very safe and easy. You don’t need to ever lock a door (even at night). It’s really magical. There is nowhere else like it. There is a great GP service.
The reason I didn’t choose an island home is because of the ferry situation. It’s been v difficult for the west coast islands which use CalMac. Not being able to leave an island because of weather or the ferry issue is highly stressful and flights are expensive.
Orkney and Shetland have a different ferry provider so don’t rely on CalMac. Both Orkney and Shetland are great places and I love visiting them. I’d definitely consider living on Orkney. Most of the Highlands and Islands are great places to live and have plenty of modern conveniences. Tesco delivers all over the Highlands and Morrisons does a weekly drop off to the local hall. The only thing to bear in mind is that the property market is much slower in some places. If you can rent a holiday cottage over the winter to see if you are happy there, that’s the thing to do. If you invest in property, don’t expect to be able to sell it quickly. Good luck, OP. Let us know what you decide.