Walk on the wild side: On the trail of Scotland’s hermits
Photographer Elliot Caunce went into the wilds to find Scotland’s hermits and found happiness and humanity on the way
The photographer found his first hermit at an old farmstead deep in the Cairngorms, perhaps surprisingly after answering an ad on Airbnb that promised “Scotland’s cheapest overnight stay” at a caravan in a tree for £20 a night.
He was led to the door of Jake Williams, who has lived for more than 40 years with no running water, no electricity or plumbing system.
Caunce said: “He lives around two miles down a forest track. He has his farmstead there, it is very run down, he won’t mind me saying that. There are a lot of broken windows and then the caravan up in the tree.
“He has made his own underfloor heating by laying down radiators and connecting them to a furnace. He is a bit of an inventor. He has no modern commodities and has made his own waste system from compost.”
Williams first lived at the house with his wife and daughter with hopes friends would also come and live there. But when the marriage broke down, nobody came.
Against this lonely existence, Caunce found Williams, a great player of the mandolin, to be extremely charming and accommodating with perhaps a slightly surprising hope for his life.
“He absolutely loved being photographed. In fact he said he wanted to be famous,” the photographer added.
Caunce, of Dundee, said: “Jake is definitely a happy man, but he has said to me that things could have turned out differently. I think he would like to try and meet someone, a woman again.”
While talk of hermits might conjure up someone at odds with the world, Caunce found a great spirit and openness in those he met on his travels around Scotland.
This was particularly the case with Davy Mcdonald, a former shipwright from Fife who lives deep in Lochaber, somewhere not too far from Corrour train station.
Davy walked into the wild after being diagnosed with a serious heart condition. What started as a life-affirming trip ended up just becoming... life itself.
Caunce said: “He was told he would probably need a heart transplant and he was put on medication. He made a decision to go into the wild. I got the impression that this was an end of life trip around Scotland.”
Now 65, Davy sleeps in one tent, has another as a store and a third where he keeps his fly fishing kit. He surrounds his camp with a fence – his “stockade” which helps in some measure to shield him from the mountain winds that swirl all around.
Caunce was introduced to him while visiting another hermit, Ken Smith, who is known by hillwalkers as the “Hermit of Treig” with Davy randomly calling in to check on his friend’s health while Caunce was there taking photographs.
Two weeks after their first introduction, Caunce went to find Davy’s tent in deep winter conditions, walking for five hours through the Lochaber wilderness in a white out.
When he arrived, Davy was not there.
Caunce found shelter for the night in an abandoned farmhouse with no heating and only a pile of damp wood from which to try and conjure a fire.
The next morning, Davy was thankfully back at his camp and away to have a wash in the loch.
Caunce said: “Davy is a legend. What strikes you is that he is a very ordinary guy. He is very well kept.
“He is always shaved and his hair is smart. He doesn’t look like what you would traditionally imagine a hermit to be.
“Davy is an incredibly happy person.
“People do question him, why he lives like this, but the truth is he does it because he loves it. He is happiest when just roaming around.”