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A remote island in Scotland is struggling to survive with 40 inhabitants

  • The island has lost a lot of its residents over the past years.

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  • The island's summer is nice but winter is discouraging visitors to come.

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  • The only student with her teacher in the island school.

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  • Jessica was the only student at the school before others joined.

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Life on a remote island in Scotland is not for everyone, with no doctors, restaurants or churches, but Alex Mumford, one of about 40 people living on Rum Island, says he loves to live there, although he admits that having a drink It can be adventurous, by going to the nearest pub on the neighboring Isle of Skye.

“We thought about kayaking, hiking for a drink, and then kayaking back,” Mumford said.

Despite all the challenges of building a home there, the island has had a bit of a population explosion recently, at least in percentage terms.

Only two years ago, fewer than 20 residents remained in this isolated outpost, and only two students were enrolled in her school, so the islanders appealed to newcomers to apply to join them.

Thousands of e-mails of expression of interest have already arrived.

Of the approximately 400 applications deemed serious, four young couples were selected.

The Rum Declaration, which was widely promoted, highlighted a broader problem across more than 90 inhabited islands in Scotland, many of which are experiencing similar existential crises.

A 2019 Scottish government document said that "over the past 10 years, the outlying islands have lost twice as many people as they gained" and warned that projections indicated that they were "at risk of population migration".

However, this was avoided in Rum, at least for the time being.

Despite rains and torrential rains in the winter of 2020, and a hot summer full of annoying flies, the newcomers are still there, families in four new Scandinavian-style log houses at bargain prices.

Mumford, 32, who moved to the island with his wife from Bristol, a city of more than 460,000 people on the other side of Britain, works as an administrator at the village school and director of visitor services at Bankhouse, a small hotel for visitors .

clear choice

Mumford said people described their decision to come to Rum as "crazy", explaining: "I think crazy people are people who live in apartments and pile on trains at rush hour.

For me, it was a clear and easy choice.”

"I finished weeks ago working full-time at a large company," he added.

Most of the newcomers have kept the jobs they already held, working remotely thanks to broadband internet access in Rum, which was installed by the salmon farming company, which employs a full-time islander and periodically brings in others.

What the island lacks in restaurants and bars (the only café opens only in summer), it makes up for in the beauty of nature.

At sunrise, red light floods the edges of the island, birds fly along the waterfront and herons quietly advance.

Deer roam the prairie carelessly around Kinloch, the only settlement, while vultures inhabit the island's volcanic peaks.

However, if this is an alluring island, it also has a difficult history;

In the nineteenth century, the indigenous population was evicted during the so-called highland evacuation when owners established large sheep farms.

By the turn of that century, Rum was the home of George Pollough, an eccentric English businessman who built a hunting lodge known as Kinloch Castle, surrounded by a zoo housing a pair of baby crocodiles.

Strangers were discouraged from visiting, and rumors spread of dubious parties behind the castle walls.

deserted beaches

None of the island's current residents have lived in the small hotel for more than three decades.

Fleis Fraser, 50, is one of the island's longest-standing residents, arriving in 1999. She now runs Ivy Lodge bed and breakfasts.

She admitted that the island's attractiveness may be difficult for some to appreciate, explaining: "Some people come here and look around and say: It's foggy, it's muddy, it's raining, and there's nothing to do, why do we come here?"

Overlooking a scenic beach, Frasier speaks, where she swims until winter.

"Rum either manages to catch people or it doesn't," she added.

In the summer, residents of remote islands enjoy beautiful deserted beaches, spontaneous barbecues, as well as parties with traditional music.

On the downside, although the community is very supportive, it is so small that nothing stays a secret for long.

And it is better not to quarrel with the neighbors, because it is impossible to avoid them.

And the islanders need to be resourceful.

When Frasier asked a mainland technician to fix the phone box outside her home, a replacement unit was sent to install it herself instead.

Teaching rotation

The arrival of new families has sparked a movement at the school, increasing the number of its pupils from two to five, according to Susie Murphy, 42, one of the two teachers who rotate from the mainland.

"It was a real challenge, but also fun," she said.

The school, which was once a small church, teaches children up to the age of 11 or 12.

Older students had to go to a secondary school on the mainland, return to Rum on weekends weather permitting, and there was a ferry running.

The guest teacher accommodation is a well-equipped trailer resembling a caravan.

“When the weather is really bad, the trailer shakes,” Murphy said, adding that sleep can be difficult in September, because “during the mating season, deer descendants can be heard all night.”

dilapidated building

As islanders contemplate the economic future, they see clear potential for a new tourist business, perhaps as guides for hiking tours or as local experts for adventurers looking to swim and kayak in the clear waters.

But how many visitors to encourage is controversial.

Aside from the two rooms at Fleis Fraser Bed, Rum has some camping facilities and the Bank House hostel, which is being renovated by Alex Mumford.

The big question is what to do with Kinloch Castle, which offered accommodations for visitors and tours of its grand rooms but closed during the pandemic?

The Nature Scotland agency is considering proposals, but restoring the dilapidated building could cost millions of pounds.

Some fear that more tourism could threaten Rum's wild nature, the calm life that attracted residents in the first place.

The newcomers seem to have adopted a slower pace, though Mumford admits to an occasional annoyance, as friends and family in England portray him as living on some sort of lost treasure island;

Instead of making great efforts to overcome the challenges of a remote settlement.

While sheltering from the rain on a recent day waiting to see if his car would return from a mainland garage onto the ferry, Alex Mumford made the mistake of calling his father and expecting a little sympathy.

“Do you enjoy heaven?” asked his father.

change reality

Kim Taylor, who runs the café on Rum in the summer, also has a small venison business.

Nothing has changed in this type of work for more than a century, as a number of animals are killed to maintain balance and the survival of deer, and are transported from the hillside on wild horses.

Rum has no real farming, something one newcomer, Stephen Atkinson, 40, is hoping to change by keeping some pigs.

He has not received permission yet.

The village is owned by a community body, and most of the rest of the island is owned by the Nature Scotland Agency, so decision-making can be slow.

Although he thought winter nights could be frustrating, Atkinson, who had moved to Rum from northern England, was undeterred by the rain.

"We now live in a world where people associate sunny and hot weather with positivity and happiness, and rain and darkness can be negative," he said, adding, "But there is beauty in everything, and I totally enjoy the cold, windy and stormy weather."

With so few people, the social interactions that do occur can be intense, Atkinson noted, with a short trip to the village store extending into a stroll for hours with each chatting stop.

"We always say that in some ways the island isn't far enough," joked Atkinson, who moved here with his wife and young son.

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