I live on a small offshore island off the west coast of Ireland. Waited a long time for this and already had ten years on an outer Orkney island twenty years ago.
For me it i all I seek. I am nearly eighty and was on disability before I retired so I am well used to a very simply lifestyle.
I have only been off island once in the last two years ; been here six years, And that was by Rescue Air Ambulance in a medical emergency . From my call it was less than half an hour to the hospital . . By ferry then road would have been at least two hours.
Medical care accessible by visiting GP .
Good supply lines. And an excellent postal service. They do a special shoppers ferry every week so I email a list every two weeks and it is delivered to my door. Coastal areas here are very practical and extent that to the isles. Good competitive, prices from a main supermarket that like most rural places sells everything, I even now get a whole cooked chicken with every order..
Good power supply . apparently is used to be unreliable but they laid cables under the ocean and excellent now. One short power cut in my six years here. Good water supply etc and am well used to septic tanks after two decades of rural life out here in the wild west of Ireland. I cook by bottled gas by preference and always a spare bottle on hand. One lasts at least three months.
Heating by excellent solid fuel stove that heats the water and runs radiators. I buy turf from my neighbour so the money stays on island and occasionally smokeless coal eggs . That come over on the ferry
Excellent small local broadband firm. Skilled at coastal regions. The dish is on the north ocean facing wall and never a flicker in the worst of gales. Costs much less than digiweb and coverage is full time with no limitations on it
Winter; well we get gales in off the Atlantic from next month onwards, but between Orkney and Ireland I am well used to them. .. Rarely snow. Rarely frost.
And of course copious supplies are squirrelled away . That is just common sense. I have at any time enough dry goods to last three months and a normal size freezer is fine. Just finishing restocking now.
We are few out here and the silence and peace are deep and total. I lie abed in the dark bliss of night and soak in the sheer utter peace. We are on the edge of a Dark Sky area so just lighthouses and harbour lights.
And of course I know who to call in need. Actually far more available than in a town. We are neighbours. Not strangers.
Life is very seasonal but I love that mightily. And prefer winter to summer. hated winter in towns. Out here it is wondrously bleak. Walking against the wind. I used to be terrified in the bad gales but better now. Orkeny was worse; gusts of a hundred and twrenty four miles per hour r for three days once.
And I love to be out in the very early hours. Total peace and the sheer beauty of the silent or roaring ocean. I give thanks every day now.
And for me what others see as cons? I was never one to eat out or get takeways. Or cinemas etc. I miss a library ,, But with the internet? Someone sent me when I asked a copy of Lord of the Rings and I am ekeing it out; just not the same reading online, lol...
Nio TV by choice but I gather there is good reception.
So happy here I am. I was on the lane at first light, picking blackberries and wild flowers. Then home to a good breakfast
But then I have had all the other remote places and it is my natural element.. and on my own is easy too.