To ask if anyone lives on a small Scottish Island?

[NewStartFamily]

Specifically Eday or Tiree but thoughts and opinions of any others very welcome!

DP and I are considering a relocation from the south coast to Scotland, somewhere with land we can use.

We have found a couple of properties that we like but we’d like to hear thoughts from people who live there about how life works in the smaller communities and places where not everything is on your doorstep.

We have one home educated son aged 9 so nearby schools not an essential consideration.

😆in this day and age??

On the mainland, near/in a town or city yes I’d agree. Community in HE, socialising etc is definitely, fairly easily a thing.
Living on a remote Scottish island is isolating. You are relying on the island’s community for your social life, work, someone to fix a broken roof etc.
HE on an island is a slap not just to the local school (which may badly want pupils) but the entire community. It’s a rejection that won’t be appreciated.
Nearest other HErs may well be a 100 miles away.
Having a pupil at the school is about joining in - in a way that nobody cares about in cities etc.

Yes I agree.

Are we also going to stop "highlanders" migrating south so they can have better jobs etc? Or is it just the Highlands that is to be protected from any immigration?

Its really not ignorant.
Island children often live at distance from their friends unless you live in a bigger village. We live on the south of the island. The north of the island is a different country, its 20 miles away. My kids have no friends from the far away villages....because its just too much faff out of school. School becones the social hub to see friends.

At high school because of distances generally team up with those from their primary school, because they will be relatively close by. If you child is not at primary they wont forge those connections.
They wont be able to get away and make non school friendships. Because you live on an island. You cant just pop off elsewhere. The island community and the schools which support them are central to everything. That are utterly essential to you survivivg island life as a family.
Also being an incomer is islolating. Being an incomer who doesnt engage will make your life very difficult.

Seriously unless you live on Arran you know shit all . The ferries are a fucking catastrophe. Calmac stats do not count cancellations so those are bollox.

My children attend an activity in Glasgow every saturday. An activity theg worked long abd gard to get in to . They should be able to leave on first boat and come home on last boat . In the 24 Saturdays so far, just 4 journeys have been non disrupted. I have spent 2k on hotels as we have been stranded 19 times . Since August.
Our high school has teachers who commute daily. There is not a week when those teachers miss a whole or part days work. The loss of teaching hours is huge and causes real problems for staff having to fill in.
The "new ferry" was 8 years late. It its cost spiralled until it cost £250 million to build. A car ferry. 250 million. Its been out of service in its first year almost as much as its been in service. They fitted the wrong propeller system and the vibrations are causing the hull to fail. Thats going be to another 5million to fix. Its sister ship is 10 years late, still not finished and being canibalised for parts to try to keep the first one running.
Oh and they built them too big to fit the port so thats been nice.

Its not anti SNP anything. Its cold hard facts from people living with it day in day out.

You dont understand the distinction? Really?

What about immigrants? Are they allowed to buy a house in the Highlands&Islands?

100%

But anyone who complains at the atrocious mess of the ferries and the consequences is attacked as being a 'yoon'. There are regularly people who need to travel for dialysis stranded and desperately trying to find a way to the hospital. It has ruined businesses, and livelihoods.

You can tell instantly if someone has experience of relying on the ferries.

Hi OP. I’ve seen the responses and wanted to add a bit of support for you. I grew up in the Highlands. Not the islands to be fair, but I had a lot of school friends who had travelled to the mainland for school and boarded locally. I can see that you know it’ll be tough at times and might not work. There will be challenges for sure and some will make you cry maybe. But there will be successes as well and it could be a great experience for you all. If it doesn’t work, you can think what you’re next adventure will be. The islands and some of the Highlands can be grim, especially the unrelenting awful weather. But when the sun shines - well, there’ll be nowhere else you’d rather be.
I spent several years in Southern Europe with my kids. We’re back in the UK now, they have great memories of the time. Yes, we struggled with language, culture, sometimes education and definitely money! But regrets? No! Just make sure your son knows you’ve got his back at all times, plan, plan, plan, research and expect the best and worst and you’ll be ok. @NewStartFamily

I don’t - but I do live in a small village in Scotland. Far enough away from other people but only an hour and a half to Glasgow.

suits me fine. I get the solitude but I can drive (no need to rely on a ferry even without the political stuff, weather is a huge factor there!).

but if I knew I could move to an island in Scotland and it would look like this!!! I’d do it in a heartbeat!!!

www.instagram.com/stories/historic_ally/3888045792015872311?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MTR5dWhsaG5xYWZuYg==

Absolutely.
I am not actually a yoon thats the irony. Far from it. I am not scoring political points.
I am just a person getting utterly shafted due to the ferries with children getting shafted due to the ferries.

Or you get told "Its island life".
No its not.
Ferry disruption due to severe weather is island life. Do not tell me what island life is if you dont live on a bloody island!

"Well my day trip in August went fine dont know why you are moaning".
That single journey makes them an expert!

Ferry disruption because ageing vessels cant cope when the wind gets above the puff of a butterfly wing is not island life.
Ferry disruption when a "new" 250million vessel has break down after break down is not island life. Its systemic failure from a company that gets dizzying amounts of public subsidy.

If we were 40years younger we'd have moved there in a flash as regular visitors to the islands for long peroids of time, but the main thing is you have to have a community spirit because everone helps each other rather unlike in England or the mainland but do it it will be marvellous for you and the children

Or maybe not, having actually gone through this experience as a dc I absolutely wouldn’t describe it as marvelous and neither would any of my siblings.

We all have our different ideas so I understand but in fairness with us there were no children they were all adults

Try Mull. Much better than Tiree or Eday. Ferries to Mull only a minor issue. There's a high school in the north of the island

Owning land in this case probably means a few hectares. Doesn't sound a big threat-there's plenty to go round. My folks are from Mull and our son and grandchildren live in Singapore. Mull is bigger than Singapore. The population of Singapore is 6 million, the population of Mull is 3000. There's plenty room. Our nearest neighbours to the east and west are each a mile away, and there are none to the north and south.

Plus 50% of the land in the Highlands is owned by 400 people, vast estates. A couple buying a couple of acres of a small croft is dwarfed by that.

Yeah, a lot of kids won't thank you for dragging them away from a familiar life to a sparsely populated wilderness. I know someone who got dragged off to a remote and isolated corner of New Zealand as a kid. First thing she did at the age of 18 was book a one-way ticket out of there, back to the UK. She found it all too limiting and insular, and has never gone back.

Yep. Every time the ferries are in the news I see islanders/people who use the ferry being admonished by people from the cities who had a lovely trip to Arran two years ago, sneering at them and telling them they're being political.

The inverse is in fact true.

I've lived in a small Scottish village for many years, and even here winters are challenging, (endless rain and long nights) but we're used to it and the wonderful community makes up for a lot. There's an excellent primary school, our son had plenty of friends when he was growing up, there's a medical centre with good doctors three miles away and a big town ten miles away. But we're not reliant on ferries and as people have said - they're problematic. There's a lot to be said for life in Scotland - so many positives that the southern media seem curiously reluctant to detail! But to quote just one example, even here, we've had people who had no idea that at certain times of the year, there would be tractors going too and fro through the village street far into the night, because the farmers needed to take advantage of the weather. We have friends who moved to Skye and thrived there, but they were already rural people, had skills that were seen as a bonus for the community they moved into and they understood about fitting into that community over a number of years. But even there - with a bridge - getting work done is difficult and expensive. And they also have the summer problem of too many tourists on single track roads!