Highland life

A year on from moving to north-west Scotland, Tom Sykes reflects and how he and his wife Charlie have taken to their new existence

- Tom Sykes

We have lived in our crofter’s cottage for just over a year and have loved every minute of it. Soon after moving, we started operation ‘hearts and minds’ to help secure our position in the community. We have been keen to attend local events, such as ceilidhs, made time to chat to the local crofters and helped out when needed. It has been a great way to get a foot in the door of the community. It has been a long and steady process, but it has started to build nicely.

We have made new friends and gained shooting permissions through the local crofters, who work the small patchworks of croft land. As with a lot of tight-knit rural communities, it has proved fruitful to play the slow game when trying to establish shooting – primarily achieved via a mixture of dropping hints and treading carefully, which has undoubtedly helped us achieve what we have. If you are thinking of doing a similar thing, I would recommend not being overly pushy before the locals get to know who you are. A man with a gun who can help with vermin control is a good position to be in when trying to make friends.

Wildfowling