isleofronalog

I received an email last week whilst I was caretaking at Braemore Estate, which lies half way between Garve and Ullapool. A stunning location.
The email was from one of my old friends asking, What are you up to, I miss hearing about the day to day goings on of Rona?
That is now history for us I am afraid.
It was difficult to find the time to put together a blog post when I was working, now retired, like everyone says, where did I find the time to work!!!!
Again because every day seems to pass too quickly, it is proving difficult to get going with my latest blog project, which starts at the beginning of Rona Life, with the Summer of 2002 .
But here is a wee update of what we are up to, starting with last week.

Braemore

We are retired we think, but we like to find a bit of time to ‘keep our hand in the game’. Wayne the Stalker and day to day manager needed cover last week so that he could get away . We were happy to oblige and hope to have a few weeks on other Sporting Estates doing the same until every year until we are not fit for this type of work anymore.

Of course we loved the views on or from Rona, the view from our old house was stunning, but you know, Scotland is so beautiful. There are many other places that just take your breath away. This week provided these views with the lovely Spring weather a bonus. It was a cold week though.

Nothing changes, deer arrive at night around the house and all sorts of wildlife are knocking about, with many Red Listed species resident. Around the policies it is buzzing with birdlife, along the road I saw two Black Grouse one early morning outing, that was special. Red and Sika are on the forest edges in the early/late hours.

I have taken up cycling, not much call for pushbikes on Rona, although we did try. There are so many things we sacrificed to live there, surprisingly cycling was one of them.
Every morning whilst there I cycled along the Dundonnel road, it was thankfully quiet and I hoped to get 10k every day, only one day below, even in the rain.

On most days there were campervans in every layby. It is a busy road by 10am for, but pretty peaceful on the Estate not far from the main Garve/Ullapool road.

One of the special things on Braemore are the ‘Vicars’. Most of the rabbits that frequent there have white bands around their necks, hence ‘Vicars’! They arrived many years ago. I have heard that rabbits like these were bred with coloured rabbits for one sole purpose. When rabbits were a major problem for farm and forestry, everything was tried to make it easier to control them. Breeding with coloured rabbits them easier to spot and obviously kill.
I think a lot of Ecologists that knock around the Highlands nowadays, cannot imagine what it used to be like back in the day, those oldies, like myself, that remember the fields of rabbits, do so with affection. For me much of the wildlife that is struggling just now, from Wildcats to Capercaillie are all down to the lack of Rabbits.
When the Rabbit began to disappear due to Myxomatosis then the horrible Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD / RHD2), the Wildcat suffered for sure. Other predators that fed on rabbits turned their attention to what was left. There is certainly not the same predator control to-day that there used to be and the results of that are plain to see. We are where we are but for me the coutryside would be the better having some rabbits, like the ‘Vicars’ of Braemore.
Ah well.

Of course we had to earn our keep and the main event was splitting logs into stove size blocks. The thing I enjoyed most was doing this for hours, without a break or thinking of the other hundred jobs that need doing. I will leave that to Wayne but I know how he feels, like I used to on Rona (most of the time), he is single handed and it is constant. So we were pleased to give him a break, without all the responsibility.
With nothing else to bother me and only one walker with his dog passing by, off the lead of course, we had perfect peace.
I would have loved to have done more but was pleased to complete the firewood and a few more things on the ‘long’ list.

There were plenty jobs aside from firewood as there always is on Sporting Estates. But all too soon our week came to an end and it was back to Skye to attend the garden at Camastianavaig.

On Wednesday I am off to Rona for three days, I expect this will be my final visit. Some Deer work with Steve, I look forward to it. It is not the same going there now, the passion is gone. Folk ask us how we feel now we have left, do we miss it. Well we missed something, but could not put our finger on it.until last Friday night.
We miss the folk we knew through Rona (Well most of them!!!!). Definitely the deer.

On Braemore Friday night around 6 pm the sun splitting the sky, I sat outside the larder taking in the view it came tro me what it was that I missed.

Every Deer Larder should have a bottle of Whisky, tradition is to toast the deer culled, so a quick rummage, I found a bottle of Cairn Dhu, a lovely dram.
I poured a generous measure and sat there taking in the view, it hit me then that this is what I miss!! Not the whisky, there is plenty of that, it was the solitude, no people, no hassle. Peace and quiet.

Although Camastianavaig is far from busy, the silence that we used to have on Rona was there at Braemore, these are special places, a gift to live and work in.

A Life On A Remote Island

For the latest part of my story on my life on Rona click on the link: Winter 2002 Latest

Summer 2002
Winter 2002
Winter 2002 latest

Chapter 2: 2003

On the 4th of April 2002 I was sent to Rona to put up a fence around the renovated, ‘Mission House”, at Dry Harbour on the Island of Rona.

My sister was working on the Island at that time for Qinetic at the Base (100 Acres) at the North end of the Island. So I was aware of what was going on although through the lens of visiting MOD staff,
I was intrigued. The pictures below show the MV Brigadoon loaded with furniture, mainly beds, and building material in, what I later learned was the ‘Tin Can Boat’. Robin Dixon the then Factor and his trusted worker, Johnny Buchanan met me at Portree Pier, we loaded up the boat, John had picked up from the South, the holiday cottage furnishings but did not sail with us.

It was a beautiful sunny, calm day and on the way over I found out that the current Caretakers were on the point of leaving but I was not there to replace them, soley to put up the new fence. My sleeping bag and some basic stores, plus tools for the job was all I had. An interesting job.

I see from my 2002 diary that this was a recce and I left the next evening, just a flying visit to assess the job, quantify materials and make a plan for staying longer next visit.
At this time I had Lymes desease, I was struggling with it and had reduced my squad to myself, ocassionaly my son Iain would help me. I had a fairly large squad doing all aspects of forestry work, contracting to Scottish Woodlands (Dingwall) but my health meant I could no longer run a big squad so I was reduced to doing small easily managed contracts, it suited me but there were some days where Lymes won and nothing happened.

I had arrived at Dry Harbour on that day in 2002, my first sight of Rona was the pretty bare rocky place at the top of Raasay. As all the cargo was for Dry Harbour, given the tide, it was easier to unload there. I saw Big Harbour that evening, when I visited the caretakers, Ray and Mary. Coming over the hill on a beautiful calm sunny evening to find this lovely harbour.

It was an old camera so excuse the pictures, in fact they may not be mine!! But here we have Big Harbour, the Brigadoon leaving, James MacKinnon and his son, the building contractor from Ardrishaig in front of the very muddy Mission House, Ray and Mary in front of Rona Lodge then Dry Harbour on the Thursday evening 4th April ’02. I took that one.

So the adventure began, I left the next evening, excited to be coming back and little did I know what the future would bring.

So It Begins: The First few Months

This next bit is a bit of a blur, it was a long time ago. Ray and Mary had decided to leave and by the time I had returned to my home outside Dingwall, I had been asked if I would stand in until they found someone for Rona whilst putting up the new Mission House fence and all the other tasks.

One of the main attractions apart from getting off the merry go round of my life was that I saw a way of slowing down and coping with the fatigue and illness that was later to turn out to be ‘Lymes”. Sounds strange to go to a remote Island to do so but my gut feeling was that in the short term a change of scene would be good.

Instead of packing for a week or so I then packed for an unknown time. Fencing tools, food and clothes in the bag, I was off to Rona for the forseeable future. The main job after that was ongoing maintenance and helping James MacKinnon the builder with the completion of the Mission House.

This was a new experience for sure, everything depended on weather and boats, the ferry at the time was MV Brigadoon, ran by local hotelier Peter Urquhart, he had been involved with Rona for several years. There were novel ways of bringing out equipment and as I was to find out (very quickly) we were never stuck, unless the wind decided otherwise.

When I went over for my second visit I had a feeling Rona was for me, I got in touch with the factor and put a proposal to him, he quickly came back and we agreed that I would stay for three months then take it from there. The Lodge needed knocked into shape and I could not do it alone, I called my Stalking partner George and asked if he fancied a wee holiday, little did he know that his holiday would be a week of hard graft to which I was very grateful. Back in the day Ali Noble a local guy was running boat trips on a RIB and he offered to drop George and his wife Muriel off. The MV Brigadoon must have been ‘tied’ up.

As I said dealing with tides, weather and the sea was completely new to me but you find out very quickly, hopefully not by too many mistakes. The middle picture was my first boat (no engine) the first ‘Tin Can’. It was used for towing material out and in and I left it floating full of rubbish bags by the slip, in the morning it was not floating!!! It was sitting pretty precarious, luckily it did not tip over.

Around this time, early May, I had my first yacht arrive ‘SV Providence’, the one in the picture belonged to Pam and Kevin Simmister who later became our ferry folk. At the time they were offering sailing tours. They were regular visitors.

I had quite a few visitors of my own during the intial period, but only for short spells, my companions were Choppy and Lady, my spaniel and pointer, they are no longer with us although I could write a blog on their adventures. Suffice to say it was a great place for dogs to be, my other pals were the small herd of Highland Cows that I inherited. I had worked with cattle so they were of no real concern but wondered initially, Why are they here? More on them later.

One of my first visitors to the newly (mostly) complete ‘Mission House’ was Konia Tack, my German night school teacher from Inverness, her husband Abdullah and a friend. They came over to try out the cottages and pass opinion. The weather was really lovely, a feature the whole of this year. It drew me into a false sense of West Coast weather, it was a good start weather wise.

At that time the power was from a generator which ran 8am until 10pm, I thought that was a waste so I campaigned for batteries and an inverter, which was duly okayed but there was no storage, the only way to get some was to build it and so my first building project started. The genny shed.

I had a memorable day bricklaying, during blistering hot weather, shorts no T shirt, I stepped off the scaffold into mid air, my back was not in good shape after falling against the wall. One of many lives I managed to use up in my years there.

Getting near the end of my three months there it became very obvious that the owners needed someone permanently on Rona, there were many visitors, yachts, kayakers, day trippers and motor boats. I felt that nothing would stop people being inquisitive and so I was proven to be correct in the future. It was about this time that I think nature tourism really took off. I guess ‘Rewilding’ was just around the corner and although there was and has been many West Coast marine tours, there has been a huge increase in my time. The ‘Right to Roam’ is a good thing if people abide by the rules, respect peoples place and leave no trace, my experience is far from that and the one thing I cannot to this day get my head round is how Commercial Boat operators think they can dump their paying guests on someones property, contribute no financial benefit and do what they like. They were not all bad, but some just never got it, right up until ther end, (Picture of Boat for information!!!)

I reached the end of my three months ‘Trial’ period and the owners, Dorte Jensen, Arne Fremmich and their youngest two came over for a few days holiday in July. It was an interesting visit and my first experience of Danish hospitality. We got on very well, whisky was involved and I could tell that I was working for good folk. They had a good sense of humour and were pretty laid back. Plans were made and I started to look forward positively to the future.

Summer Part 2

After many months of trying to start something new on the blog, I have had a few hours to-day so I decided to take a look at the Blog and I have forgotten how to use it, suffice to say I got there, I think.

My first post of the new page ” A life on a Remote Island” is above, I will continue my writings and memories on the page, link below, comments very welcome.

So here is a new page: https://isleofronalog.com/a-life-on-a-remote-island/

Hopefully I will find the time to continue to scan old photos and delve into my 23 years on the Island.
The old posts are all still there in the archive, sorry my tagging (whatever that may be, should have been better). But it is a good place to go for old news.

However this new page/posts will cover the time from 2002 until the time I started the blog and who knows maybe after, I might post the things I could not say when I worked there!!!!

Oh! and By the way, we were back in February 2026 finishing up the Deer Management culling hinds, great ten days, nice to be back as a worker, no responsibility but the usual issues, Water woes!!!!

Excuse me for my absence, but we have been extraordinary busy for some reason!!

So excuse me again for re-posting a facebook post I put up when we left Rona but it is a start. Our move to Camastianavaig has been good and we love it here. It is very strange being retired but we are getting the hang of it. More later as we try to catch up. What is the future for the Isleofronalog? I don’t know to be honest but I think I will look back from the start of our tenure on Rona and post some historical stuff. Watch this space.

Yesterday was the day. After 23 years on Rona it was time to say goodbye. It was a bit of a rush at the end so we had no time to contemplate. We have had numerous boatloads of our belongings and to-day we are struggling to find a space for a lot of it. But we will get there.

It was a stunning day and very nice to leave Rona feeling emotional for sure but lucky to have had the opportunity to live there for so long.

Dan and Tommy picked us up on MV Stardust for the last load of belongings, then off for a very calm sail back to Portree. Sea Eagles, Dolphins and lots of Seabirds were with us right up to Portree Harbour. Not to mention the G n T Tommy had stashed in the bottom drawer.

It has been a blast, some trying moments but overall a great experience. What now? Who knows. We will see what the weeks ahead bring.

We would just like to take the opportunity to thank those that helped us. Too many to list but you know who you are. It would not have been possible without you, sadly some no longer here but never forgotten.

Thank you all and thank you Rona.

Not that we are counting down, but our exit from Rona is coming closer. I see it was the 8th of August that I last posted. Been busy here.

So here’s a catch up of activities here these last few weeks but only till September 1st, more coming soon.

Steve arrived on the 11th of August with my son and family from Oz, home for a wedding and family visit. So nice to see them.

It was lovely to have them and being a good time for fishing we had a few nights out in the Gap fishing, good to see some good sized Mackerel getting up North, a good sign perhaps.

Life went on when my guests were here and venison production continued with my new assistant
Steve, an able, enthusiastic helper.

A wee gallery of events in August, the Deer are getting fat, even Tufty has put on weight. The weather had been generally good but Storm Floris was quite damaging with heavy, heavy rain. An early storm that was not usual. Stalking continued as I tried to get my cull numbers in the limited time left. Every year we get new groups of folk visiting and this group of Botanists were over from Skye but they all said 4 hours was not enough, ah well there is always next year.

I think that groups like these find a wealth of ‘biodiversity’ on Rona and that is the surprise. Unfortunately I was not around having left on their boat with boxes of our effects to our new house. So I could not regale them with the reason for Red deer on Rona and the benefits of a totally natural herbivore on all the ‘biodiversity’ we have.

So there we have it, the start of the big move with Dan Corrigal our long time friend and aquaintance Who, very kindly is helping us by providing the boats that will remove us and our personal effects, which was a cost that we were not looking forward to funding ourselves, Thank you very much Dan.

It was a beautiful sunny calm day for our first of four boats, Dan also gave us the use of his van. Portree was busy, with a humungeous cruise ship in with lots of people wandering around Portree aimlessley. Remided me of sheep and as we headed to Camustianvaig, more of the same on the road in.

In the meantime my Sister flew over Rona, sending us this stunning aeriel shot.

Talking about Biodiversity- for those wondering: Biodiversity is all the different kinds of life you’ll find in one area—the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria that make up our natural world.

In the picture above we have burrowing bees, the are obviously here forever as I first came across them by our Genny shed 23 years ago (but I am sure someone will ‘discover’ them in the future). I had not spotted them for many years but they were there for sure. This year they took up residence on this old bare earth bank where I had scraped off the top peaty layer to get road material but I never did get round to that road surfacing!! It is on the list.

The temperature was warmer this year for sure and the plethora of insects really spang to life, what a year for butterflies, dragonflies, all sorts of weird and colourful insects. The sea was busy and the heather really bloomed, the deepest purple I have seen for a long time. It was nice to enjoy on our last year here.

On a more serious note, we had reports of a break-in at the Base up North. It had certainly been abandoned We were concerned as we had suffererd a change in behaviour of visiting ‘boat people’. It appeared that due to various press reports on the sale of Rona, which were to say the least, of poor quality reporting. There was a thought that Big Harbour, our end of Rona, had been sold and was unoccupied. More on that later. In the meantime we visited the Base and were horrified to find the place not in good state. We notified those that we thought were caretaking the North end and left it at that (and more later on this too).

We have had small motor boats rock up to the pontoon, never having seen them before, on going down, by chance to the harbour on the ATV, they very quickly let their ropes go and took off!!!!! We have had yachts tie up only to be ‘surprised’ to be told to move. We have had people ignoring signs and coming into the curtilage of the properties, looking for Dry Harbour? Looking for showers (no towels or kit with them!! etc), “we got lost and came this way”. I have heard it all before, its called being nosey. I will not miss that bit.

The guy with the rubber boat was filling his tank up, I think he had four trips, he was anchored for most of the week and helped himself, enjoying the water and pontoon, tracks etc. Never left a bean, that’s not true he did buy a bit of venison. But hey, we ran out of water that week!!!! Not his fault but I will moan about it anyway.

The ‘Right To Roam’ meant well but out here it seems to mean lets have a look inside every building we can, again I will not miss this. None of the above yachties would like it if I came around their house and poked my nose in, Why Here?

So to our very last cottage guests, Debbie and Dave, were husband and wife, now seperated but still together, on holiday at least. They love Rona and are among our long term visitors that kept coming back. They had booked two years ago and we honoured their booking. But time is running out so no more. We will miss all of our Cottage Guest returnees, our very good yachting friends (we have a few) and all the folk that have helped us over 23 years. But there are a few more blogs to come so no farewells yet.

So bringing us up to the end of August one more removal trip, MV Wavedancer this time.

Delivered to Camastianavaig that day.

A few views from above the house, the living room, the yard and the sunrise. We love our new ‘Corner Hoose’.

More coming soon.

As I said we are here until the 31st October. We await the arrival of the lucky people who are going to take over and that is happening soon. In the meantime life goes on.

We have had quite a few visitors these last few months as we reach the end of our time, mostly family but good friends too. Last week Wayne and his family came over for three days. Wayne worked for me when I was a Contractor for Scottish woodlands Ltd before going onto a career in Gamekeeping/Stalking. A very knowledgeable and experienced stalker, he has been on various properties since his days with me. At the moment he is Head Stalker at Braemore Estate, North West of Inverness on the Ullapool Road.

Wayne had been at our wedding 10 years ago and the following year on a Deer count covering the whole of Rona. It was a succesful visit with a good thorough count of the deer at the time.

I had asked him to take his rifle and hopefully we would get a couple of Stags for the venison business.
The weather was very calm and midgie, not ideal, the Stags elusive.

We went to the gap (Kyle Rona) in MV Rona 2, dropped a line and Robbie, Wayne’s son was quickly into some Mackerel. Not too big but still enough for a meal, then it was off to Eilean Tighe. The Pollock there were not so plentiful but a few wee ones were pulled in, then Grace Wayne’s daughter caught what you would call a “Whopper”.

A change of location took us to just North of Dry Harbour. We saw a “rise” and headed for it, looked like more Mackerel, then Robbie shouted, ” There’s a Stag”. We quickly spied it and decided to go for it, Wayne had his rifle with him, I had been hoping to spot something worth going for and here we had it. The Stag was one Marc and myself had bumped into a few weeks previously, I had had only a glimpse of him as he took off over a bank and into the trees. But to me with his small head (at the time) and body he had looked like a young stag.

We headed towards the shore out of sight and wind of the stag, we quietly dropped Wayne and Robbie off. We then pulled back and went fishing, having a grandstand view of proceedings. Wayne, Robbie and Jock (I forgot Jock the Patterdale) went about 50 metres then Robbie stayed back with Jock.

I lost sight of Wayne and for the next half hour he was mostly out of sight or camoflagued from my eyes. The next thing I heard was Grace saying, “There’s a shot”, we looked up with the binoculars where the stag had been lying and he was still lying. Wayne had had a clean shot. Out of sight of us the stag had been lying below an overhang, Wayne reported that this had been his hideout for some time. Lots of dung and the grass there well cropped.

Now the hard work begins.

Wayne quickly dealt with the Stag, Robbie and Jock in attendance. Then the drag, it was not far but the terrain was testing, a little bit of grass then rocks, nearer the shore with barnacles. But the stags hide was tough. Rather Wayne than me, I’m getting too old!!!

We headed inshore to find the landing place that was perfect for dropping Wayne, now perfect for picking up the dead stag.

Wayne was doing well and was almost there, just a couple of hollows to pull the deer up over and then the lift onto the boat.

Grace wasa tasked with holding the boat tight in we hauled the Stag aboard and loaded up the crew, textbook.

The day was flat calm always a bonus when going out using the boat, the swell is not kind especially from the North West. Been there done that one.

Now the drag up the pontoon and gangway much to the amazement of the two Belium Yachties standing there. This is the real world of Deer Management on Rona.

Then back to the larder for dressing out. First thing we noticed was the abnormal hoove

Wayne was still saying this was an old stag and seeing this, I was definitelycoming round to agreeing with him. The extended hoof was a sign of injury as the stag must have been carrying it for sometime. There were other ways of assessing the age and of course a look at the teeth would definitely tell us. A tip Wayne had heard from one of his ghillies was the way the brow tines were short and swept up indicated a stag going back.

So for sure Wayne was right and I was wrong, in Deer Management you never know it all and you would be a really smart guy to think you did. By the way, I got banned from Linkedin for a post similar to this, yesterday, too much blood for them!!!But this is the reality of Deer Management and in the end the culled deer, die. I do not like it, it is the end result in proper deer management, in a perfect world it would all work towards a nice ending but it is not nice, it is not easy and there is no perverse enjoyment of killing a deer. Just a feeling that you did your best.

We skinned the deer and hung it in the chill, it was late by the time we had finished so we did not pay the carcass particular attention. Always making sure the inside was clean, the outside just skinned, it will be clean, so no need to look. Until next day whilst checking the temperature of the chiller, I noticed the front leg on the malformed hoof side was emaciated. With not using the front leg, the muscle had wasted.

A more thorough inspection told me the story of the elongated hoof, possibly an injury, a fight or a fall. This stag had a serious front joint problem, and it was not in good shape. Arthritic and inflammed. It was on its way out.

The rest of the animal was good, the venison first class but this front leg in poor shape. We butcher all of our deer and these things come up now and again, but it is good to anaylise it and put it in the memory bank.

All in all a good result, an exciting stalk, retrieve and good discussion on the location, age and state of the carcass.

After months of toing and froing, emails galore and lots of visitors looking into this and that, the Island finally concluded its sale to new owners.

We are pleased to announce as per the Press release interpreted by Katherine Hay of The Scotsman, below.

We are going to stay and support the new owners until the 31st October then depart to Camastianavaig on Skye. We get the keys on the 21st of August and Look forward to it. We will no doubt flit between the two places during this period.

The Blog will continue, we most likely will change the name but only after we leave or when I get my “saved” posts sorted out. I have one or two up my sleeve!!!

We will take this opportunity to thank everyone who have helped us over the years, the many contractors and good friends pressed into service, without you all it would never have worked.

The Story Continues: