Welsh family chosen to live on Scottish island

Jan 30 2008 by Steffan Rhys, Western Mail

WHEN this Welsh couple enrol their two children at a new school next month, they will walk to class along one of the most remote shorelines in Britain.

Currently home to just 17 people, Canna, the most westerly of the so-called Small Isles south of Skye will soon be home to the family of Neil and Deborah Baker. The move comes after they responded to a call from the National Trust for Scotland for families to live on the island when its population fell to 15.

It was an opportunity that attracted hundreds of applications from across the UK, Dubai, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Australia and the US, but it was the Bakers, plus a couple from Scotland who have already moved there, who were deemed the most suitable.

Mr Baker, 43, a landscape gardener of 27 years and a Carmarthenshire county councillor for 10, will restore the somewhat neglected walled garden of Canna House, as well as producing the island’s fruit and vegetables.

The garden, like Canna itself, belonged to the late historian John Lorne Campbell, who donated the island to the National Trust in 1981.

And when the couple’s children, Anwen, four, and Elinor, six, register at their new school they will triple its number of pupils.

“After hearing a family was being sought to be part of the community up there we made some inquiries and realised we were exactly what they were looking for,” said Mr Baker, currently working on getting his current home in Llannon, near Llanelli, suitable for its next occupiers.

“They needed adults with practical skills and a family that could fit in at the school.

“They were initially offering the chance to run a bed and breakfast but that didn’t come off, though it soon became clear there was a job to do in restoring the gardens, something I’ve always wanted to do.”

After an interview in Inverness by a panel including some of the island’s residents, the Bakers went to the island and realised it was an opportunity too good to turn down.

“It is a magical place though it’s hard to put your finger on why,” said Mr Baker, whose wife Deborah, 37, works for the NHS.

“There is something unique about living on an island, as soon as that ferry goes you are on your own until it comes back.

“Our first concern was always with our children but we think it will be very good for them. There is no traffic and the people are friendly and welcoming. They will know everyone and there will be a sense of it being one big family.

“With a population that size on an island, you have to get on well with everyone.

“They will have to be more self-reliant as will we as parents. It’s very easy to fall into a trap of not being bothered to cook so just nipping to McDonalds but that is no longer an option.

“The children will walk along the seashore every morning, crossing a small bridge to school on an adjoining island.

“On their way home, they can pick sea shells if they want.

“When they get older and closer to secondary school what to do will become a major question.”

Before that question arises, Mr Baker has a two-year contract to restore the garden and produce the fruit from its plum, pear and apple trees, its gooseberry and raspberry bushes, as well as growing its potatoes and carrots.

Whether he gets paid for them is, as yet, unclear.

“Perhaps there will be a barter system where if the fisherman brings in a good catch we will be in a position to trade,” he said.

The Bakers, who will live in a 1970s bungalow in the island’s harbour, will join the island’s harbour master and postmistress, while there is also a cafe, a 5,000-acre farm, and around 30,000 tourists a year attracted by the island’s place on a popular yachting circuit.

Canna’s a small isle with a big history
The Isle of Canna is one of the Small Isles (Eigg, Rhum, Canna, Muck and Heisgeir) positioned to the south of Skye, to the west of Mallaig and Lochaber, and around 150 miles northwest of Glasgow.

Now a small community reliant mainly on farming and tourism, the wealth of archaeological evidence places people on the island as far back as 5,000BC.

The Vikings are known to have been on the island, which passed through many changes of ownership until it was bought by John Lorne Campbell in 1938.

He donated it to the National Trust for Scotland in 1981.

Canna is four miles long and 1.5 miles wide and has a satellite island, Sanday, joined by a footbridge.

Campbell’s former home, Canna House, holds a substantial collection of Gaelic literature, photographs and folk songs, although these are not currently open to the public.

The island’s dramatic coastline is a special protection area, home to large colonies of seabirds, including shags, puffins, razorbills and black guillemots.

All of Canna’s 17 residents are based in its kidney-shaped harbour.