Living on Canna
As regular readers of the Blog will know, Anna and I enjoy our trips to the Scottish islands, and even spent our honeynoon camping in a van on the Outer Hebrides… Well, when you live in a sleepy seaside hamlet in West Wales trying to find a quiet, relaxing place for holidays means we have to look for places that are even more out of the way.
I think we just like the self-contained nature of islands too as you feel as though you can explore them properly and really immerse yourself in their atmosphere… And now there is an opportunity to live on Canna as they are looking for a family to move there to stop the populations falling too much. The current population is 15, although apparently 30,00 tourists visit the island each year. The National Trust for Scotland is offering two houses on Canna for rent in the hope of encouraging families to move there in order to keep the school running and to contribute to the community and economy of the island.
Don’t worry, I think that is a little too remote and isolated even for us. The idea of living on a small island is a nice one, but the practicalities aren’t quite so convincing. The nice thing about living here in West Wales is that it can in some respects feel a little like island living cut off from the hustle and bustle of the more populated parts of the UK it has a strong sense of identity and a strong community feel, but if we need to visit a city for any reason we can simply jump in the car and be there within 2-3 hours. It has to be said it is rare that we ‘need’ anything from the city, but the option is always there without the need of a boat or plane to get us off the island.
You can see what some of the residents are up to on Canna here: Cannablog… A Simple Life of Luxury indeed.
