As I write this, it’s drizzling outside and the mountains we usually see from our living room windows are obscured by fog. But as the weather continues to change, rainbows begin to form.
Four weeks ago we were unpacking the entire house, which has certainly grown a lot since we moved from Leith, Edinburgh, to the suburb of Musselburgh. This is not an unusual move for many people our age who have growing families and cannot afford to buy a larger house in east Edinburgh.
However, this move is definitely out of character as not many people pack their bags and move to Skye with two small children!
To say that moving to Skye had been a long-held dream of ours would not be entirely accurate. Rather, it resulted from a series of circumstances that meant everything fell into place and we agreed to what seemed inevitable.
Phil and I travel and live in different places, so moving is not unusual for us. We arrived in Edinburgh at the same time at the end of 2012, although it would be another year before we met.
Edinburgh is where we lived together, where we got married and made mutual friends, and where our two sons began their lives.
But all along, we always said we both wanted to live somewhere else. A bit of an adventurous place.
As much as we love Edinburgh, it’s not the place we’d always imagined. I mean, you can always say you never know what’s going to happen, but for some reason we all feel like there’s more, even if we can’t explain it.
But “somewhere” has never been clear. But that’s not to say we haven’t come up with many (many) ideas over the years.
On our honeymoon to New Zealand in 2017, we sat in our rental car in a South Island drop-in car park, eating bacon and egg pie that we still talk about today, and discussed moving there. My problem has always been that I don’t know where I want to live in New Zealand.
I’ve always said it’s unlikely I’d move back to where I grew up, but that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with that; After seeing more of the country and living in other places, this isn’t the most surprising. But it seems silly to move across the world and not be with your family.
So, New Zealand is out.
We talked about Spain because I love it and I do miss it, but I’m not sure that’s where we want to raise our family. Being a part-time English teacher is a very different place! Phil is taking a wait-and-see approach.
Phil had always had a connection to France after traveling there for a long time, but I had never been so enamored with the idea. A lot of it is because I feel like I speak French very poorly.
Ironically, I didn’t try to learn Scots Gaelic because that’s the language our children will be learning in school, and it’s far from easy…
Spain and France reached a stalemate.
That leaves England, and given that neither of us has a strong interest in living anywhere in England (or Wales or Northern Ireland), that leaves Scotland.
Our wish list is this:
- close to the sea
- A sense of community and opportunities to participate
- Not in the middle of nowhere – preferably within walking distance of bars/shops/cafés
- An old house, not a new one
- A larger piece of land with room for development
- Outbuildings or rooms which we may potentially convert into accommodation or space for friends and family to live in or rent out
- Give the kids more room to grow and give us an office
- Properties or areas where there may be more business opportunities
It’s not something we actually wrote down, but it’s something we think back to and talk about often. Funny thing is, we’ve got it all…be careful what you wish for!
So why move to Skye?
Lucky for us, Scotland has plenty of places that tick the boxes above. However, we don’t want to get too far away. We loved the Isles of Lewis and Harris and Shetland, but they seemed a bit too far.
But the West Coast seemed more in line with what we were looking for.
Interestingly, in all these late night discussions or conversations in the car while the boys slept, Skye was never mentioned specifically.
In fact, Phil spent quite a bit of time here as a kid, and a friend and I visited once. 2020 also brought us here with our first little boy, but for no apparent reason it never really entered our minds.
A few years ago I started house hunting all over Scotland, looking for the odd house that might be suitable, although we couldn’t move as we had to start the business from scratch after losing all our income. -what do you know. Usually, there’s some reason why they’re not quite right.
Then, last year, out of the blue Phil’s father and stepmother (let’s call her M) announced that they were selling their house in Ayrshire and moving to Skye. This is the closest family we have in Scotland.
The reason for their move involves family members (M’s side). As soon as they mentioned it and we looked at each other, I knew. Why don’t we move to Skye?
When we compared it to our mental checklist, it checked all the boxes. I mean, this is an island that has everything we could want, plus a bridge, how did we not realize that before?
Find a house in Isle of Skye
And so began a year of searching for a house we could never buy. and learn more about what we might want to achieve.
Again, we didn’t want to move all the way to Skye and end up in the middle of nowhere. It makes more sense to be close to family, but that’s not the easiest thing to do on the Isle of Skye, where houses may often come up that aren’t exactly where you want them to be.
We spent three months in New Zealand last winter (UK time..) and apart from the obvious joy of spending time with family it did two things for us.
The first thing it did was make us realize that while we loved New Zealand, for some reason it wasn’t a place we wanted to live right now. Even though we already know where we would live if we did!
The second is that it firmly centers our desire to move somewhere different. If we could work from anywhere, why do we wake up every day in Musselburgh and look out the window at our suburban neighbors?
When we first moved from Leith to Edinburgh we were always worried that we would want to return to the city as it was so close to Edinburgh. Of course, this will be weekly! but it is not the truth. I don’t know if it’s not being able to get into much of 2020/2021 that’s causing this, or if that’s the case anyway, but the reality is we could easily go further without being bothered.
We love our friends in Edinburgh and our life there. We don’t have to move. Our oldest is starting in a good school and our youngest is settling into kindergarten. We spent years building a relationship that unfortunately became more distant.
but. We need to take risks for ourselves. Wake up feeling more inspired every day. In order to enjoy the beautiful scenery, we can go out of the house. Feeling a little freer.
Are we the most outdoorsy people in the world? No. But we do want to do better than before.I wrote about my trip lake ossian This June, and how it makes me feel. I’ve always wanted this.
So we came back from New Zealand with a renewed sense of purpose. We are going to take a year to visit family in Skye and see if we like it and move.
Apparently, fate intervened and two weeks after we got back, my phone went off with an alert for a new house for sale in Skye. Usually, these are quickly dismissed because of the location, but at least this one looks to be in the right place. As I looked further into the listing, I realized it met all the criteria I mentioned above…
I sent Phil a message and included a link to it, but didn’t think about it too seriously. His answer? I like this.
Just like that, the avalanche started.
We requested it the next day and it was accepted.
We bought a house on the Isle of Skye, out of sight. We are all flying on cloud nine while wondering what on earth we have done.
But of course, all good stories have to hit a rough patch somewhere.
Two days later we received word that the seller was unable to proceed due to personal reasons, but might be able to at a later date.
We are completely stuck. The highs turned into lows and we had no idea what to do.
Eventually we were able to go ahead with the purchase and set a move-in date further down the road and visited it.
Four weeks ago the house was packed and we had the last of the chips for tea and bought two bottles of their chip sauce to take with us (IYKYK) and watched it all get loaded onto the truck the next day, Then drove to Skye and crossed the bridge in the dark.
We stayed with the family for almost a week, waiting for things to arrive (turns out, moving 5 hours away takes four days!), and then moved into our own beachside cabin.
I wouldn’t say I don’t miss Musselburgh/Edinburgh as we had a great life there and had no real reason to leave it other than what we wanted. But in the four weeks we’ve been here, I feel like we made the right decision.
Everyone says to wait for the real winter and then the tourist season, but I choose not to worry about it just yet.
It’s not like we’re ignorant of weather or tourism issues on an island as popular as Skye. I mean, part of the reason we moved here was the accessibility of the bridge and the beautiful scenery.
However, working for ourselves means we have choices. We can stay away from it, or we can embrace it, and maybe even find a job in it; who knows.
The beauty of it is we have an idea and we make it happen. You never know what will happen and how things will turn out.
Looking back, it’s crazy that we didn’t consider moving to Skye sooner. Without the catalyst of a family move, we probably wouldn’t have done it when everything else seemed to be pointing in our direction.
Life is short, it’s a cliche, but it’s true. We all think we have time, but you really never know, as we were reminded again this year. Choosing to spend your time doing what you want to do and working towards it, and hopefully achieving your dreams, is never a waste of time or time spent in the wrong way.
This may not be our last step, but for now, it feels like we’re exactly where we’re supposed to be.
Sonya x
