Living on a Scottish island

[Keeplookingforwards]

Tell me about living Island life!!!!!

How is Island living?
Would you recommend it ?
Up sides and down?

The best and worst ?
COL is it massively higher than say rural highland mainland
Is everyone friendly to “outsiders”

Would like as much chat/info as can muster lol

Not really an AIBU but here I am 😊

Neither though so best stay mainland you think?
I panic if I'm not near usual services - doctor, hospital, pharmacy, supermarket, chip shop, that kind of thing. On holiday once I had to leave an apartment I'd booked because there was no bus service to the area (no car at the time). I moved into the nearby town. Isolation doesn't work for me. So I'd stay on the mainland. Somewhere with a good view, perhaps. And a bus service.

Agree with most of what is on here. Only thing I would add to the healthcare comments is no dentists. Massive dentist shortage in Scotland and no private dentist will set up in rural areas as it is too expensive. So you end up having to drive for hours + ferry to pay for a private dentist.

There are plenty of islands that have everything that you mention.

That's not necessarily true, it depends on the island itself and where you are on the island.

@Islandsmeh I know of one island group with a Lidl and also pretty amazing sporting opportunities! Not Lewis, sadly for the OP though!
Edit - Lewis might also have good sporting opportunities though, and it does have Tesco (and other shops).

Very true. A new dentist has set up on Arran and his list filled up so fast that my Mum has been told it could be a year before she can get an appointment there. As she's 91 ...

@Merryhobnobs and @montysma1, odd to think we could have been standing next to each other at the pier! We're off to Arran again in a couple of weeks. Watching the Calmac website and the weather with heightened interest at the moment ...

That's human nature. Territorial and tribal, plus suspicious of new. I agree it shouldn't be like that.

I live in the IOM, much more populated and far less harsh then Scottish islands.

but transport links are the thing that really can dominate life And talk, we’ve had issues with our new ferry and the airport. There are normally about 10 flihjtd a day to Heathrow, Gatwick, Liverpool Dublin, Manchester etc. but when it’s foggy, too windy, the ATC is a man down, that goes out the window, so if you are flying international or really need to be in the UK you have to leave a day or 2 early to be sure.

it effects medical appointments too. the air ambulance can usually fly in almost anything but routine appointments in UK are affected.

the ferry going or not going has a huge effect, while the shops have warehouses, Tesco and coop, M&S doesn’t. The shops and regularly can have empty shelves if the boat is having a bad run.

lots of places don’t deliver here.

but there’s a concern over will transport links work…..

Op, am not an islander and have never lived on one. If I was to advise you I would say starting thinking from their perspective. A number of your comments seem vert much about you or an outsider's meaning making. Yes you may think you are taking nothing and you are putting in something. But this is only "good" for them if you are putting in something they truly value. And it may be that you don't see what you are taking because you have outsider eyes.
I say this as someone from a developing country who has travelled a lot to many other developing countries where someone comes in and think they are taking nothing and contributing but we see they are taking so so much. Sometimes they are taking everything. And we see little of what they are contributing. Or even that they contribute nothing

There are plenty of islands that have everything that you mention.
I'm not dissing your islands, I just need to be able to move around freely, without ferries. I lived in the IOM for four years. Loved it but also felt I had to get to the mainland regularly.

Arran perchance? That boat in the bay Facebook rant was epic! 🤣

Yes, but I certainly wouldn’t want to bring up teenagers on the islands.
People might think it makes for an idyllic childhood and in many ways it does, but once they hit the teen years the fact that education options are limited, job opportunities are limited and that there’s nothing to do but take drugs, take risks and have sex with each other starts to hit…

@Yellowpingu
Yes!😂
She blocked me after that one so I don't get to laugh at the bonkers any more!

Did you see the "no fly zone over Kings cross" one because a drone was "spying" on her and she wanted them arrested?😂 (As opposed to them just getting an arial view of the stunning geography out at the point!).
Cue every drone pilot on the island making a beeline😂.
And the threat to shoot her neighbours pig which got into her completely unused field because it was tresspassing!

Oh I missed the pig one! Off to trawl the community pages….

You would need to think of it as moving to somewhere with a different culture and do your best to fit in, not impose your views from outside. This is what people object to about incomers. It may still be living in the UK and Scotland while also being very very different. So no-one owns an island and anyone can live there but in doing so they are often destroying the very thing they claim to want. That article about housing is very sad.

My teenagers have had more opportunities on an island than they ever would have had on the mainland. Heavily involved in music and sport with a chance to shine that they might not get elsewhere. Far from nothing to do, they havent enough time in their week to fit in all the stuff they do.
Maybe that's my particular teens. But again , that's going to be the same on the mainland. They are all different, some will be piss heads ,some won't.

The high school isn't the best but it isn't the worse. We struggle to recruit teachers because a single teachers salary won't buy you a house on the island and there is nothing to rent.

The small school size means that kids are all individuals and not a number. I see that as a real positive. There are areas where the school defo lets them down, but in other ways it's a fabulous place to get educated.

Yes there are problems, yes there are drugs, quite a lot of drugs. It's not Brigadoon. Yes teens get into bother. But that's the same everywhere.
It's not down to " nothing to do". There is plenty to do.
Some teens will engage with opportunities, other teens won't and will hit drink and drugs. Like they do on the mainland.

They will have to leave the island for higher education, but that's the norm in England.
Plenty of hospitality jobs if they want it. Low paid but plenty work for those it suits. Those it doesn't will go off island and get qualifications. Many come back.
Many more would come back if there was affordable housing.

@Yellowpingu
Dont think that one made the forum! It was local goss that got as far as the post office! I do know the pig concerned though😁

OP If you do move, you won't be the first incomer - you will find that there are lots of new people, from all over the world, throughout the Highlands and Islands. Mostly, they are very welcome. But @GingerScallop makes some very good points. Local people will have worked out ways of living in their community; these don't necessarily need changing or 'improving' by incomers. The 'boats in the bay' posters also have an important message: be realistic. Farming, fishing and tourism can be noisy, messy, intrusive - remote does not always equal tranquil. And the inflated cost of housing for young families, plus the lack of job opportunities, is a real and important issue in many places.

Read I am an island @Keeplookingforwards
Tamsin Calidas
But, very gently think about this:
Two Traveller

Do you actually live on an island?
I ask because you're portraying an overly bleak outlook.

I can't get on the list either. Finally had to sign up to one in Stevenson before my teeth fall out of my head. ( phoned every dentist on that coastline and only one taking on). The check up date I got was 10 months after signing up!
Cone check up day...........the boat was off😳
Come the re scheduled 6 months later check up day.......the boat went to Troon.

I still haven't been.

Il see if I can find it but there’s a woman who documents her family life on a Scottish island. The whole family travel to the mainland and stay in a hotel for a few nights so they can have appointments/take the kids out somewhere fun/get supplies.

@valensiwalensi This was where my thinking was at . I would do the same and see friends, make 2/3 days of it .

I’ve just read the first one and i hear what you are saying .