For little over a year I lived on a farm in a country park in the West of Scotland. We rented a farmhouse on land that belonged to a local shepherd and his family, the house sat on a steep hillside overlooking a beautiful valley. The place was a dream come true but we soon came to understand that the enormous heating costs and isolation during the winter months made life there hard. Although it resulted in a move to the city on my part, I wouldn’t change my decision to live there as I felt a strong sense of family and community.

Big events would involve the arrival of the postman up our treacherous drive-way or a van passing at the bottom of the dirt track. The hills and the surrounding expanse were however inspiring. I witnessed a lamb being born as I sat eating my breakfast one morning, a group of druids prayed to the moon on occasion and everyone couldn’t help the excitement of our first snow-in: no work hooray!

Muirshiel Country Park was our location; the view down into the valley is truly breathtaking at any time. We regularly wandered all over the hills on adventures through the forests and rivers. The nature centre at the peak of our track road always encouraged us to take part in some activity involving the wildlife.

During the winter months the farm was quite a treacherous place to be, we all managed to either crash or get our cars stuck in waist deep snow. We literally had to buy supplies for the apocalypse in order to survive. Keeping a fire burning was our main focus which eventually resulted in us throwing in anything close to hand including furniture and egg boxes.

The spring brought in a fresh landscape and with it came the new lambs. There is such a beautiful transformation over the fields during this time and the animals seem to appear from all over.

This part of Scotland is one of many places which require a short drive off the designated route to be surrounded by the wilds of the countryside. Just bear in mind however that entertainment on long dark television-free nights may involve burning anything in sight or worse- jigsaws.

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