Do you fantasize about giving up your urban life and moving somewhere remote, somewhere you can slow down, get to know your neighbors, make a difference to your community, someplace close to nature?

Mary J. MacLeod did just that. She left the south of England and moved to the remote island of Papavray in the Hebrides of Western Scotland. The island is small – only 20 miles long – and she says, “numerous lochs take great bites out of the coastline so that you are never out of sight of the sea.” It sounds lovely.

MacLeod and her husband discovered the island whilst on a camping vacation and fell in love with it. Within a few days, they had bought a feu (not quite a croft¹) that was miraculously on the market, abandoned for several years and in need of serious remodeling. Luckily there was a small hospital on the other side of the mountain spine that divided the island that could use MacLeod’s services. She took on the role of District Nurse (visiting nurse at large) and her husband became the electrical consultant for the island (this was in 1969 and electricity had come there in the 1950s, so many people still had their original electrical appliances and were determined to get a full life out of them²).

She and her husband quickly returned home to sell their suburban home, with double-glazed windows and central HVAC, packed up their lives, registered their older son for a boarding school “60 miles by road and as many more by ferry” on the mainland (home for the weekends) and set off on their adventure.

It wasn’t all sun and beautiful landscapes – MacLeod often walked to her patients’ homes, along unpaved roads, in winter rain and wind. Finding someone to cover holidays or vacations was challenging. But she seemed to enjoy the work and the people she met.

The book is a series of stories about her experiences, the people she helped. It reminded me of All Creatures Great and Small, charming tales of island people, a lifestyle so different from what MacLeod and her husband were used to, but so welcoming, with great landscapes and endless cups of tea.

If you fantasize about living in a small town or a rural area, surrounded by natural beauty, and a slower pace of life, this is a book for you.

It’s nice to fantasize.

1. In America, we might call it a thatched-roof cottage. ↩︎
2. For those of you too young to remember this: you used to be able to buy a Black & Decker Toaster Oven or a Kenmore washer and it would last forever. Alas, no more. ↩︎