How family’s dream of escaping the rat race turned into a nightmare on remote Canna Hounded out of our idyllic island home by National Trust BULLIES
FOR Gordon and Denise Guthrie, moving to a remote Scottish island was the perfect opportunity to forge a better life for themselves and their young family. They knew setting up home on the Hebridean outpost of Canna would not be easy, but were sure the hardships such as isolation, storms, power cuts and being stranded for days would be a price worth paying to protect their children from the modern, urban world.
But the idyll turned sour and now, after a three-year stand-off with the island’s National Trust for Scotland owners, the Guthries have joined a string of families who have left Canna, vowing never to return.
They accuse the NTS of luring them with false promises then bullying them off the island when they complained. Now they plan to sue it for £10,000 to cover their costs.
In an exclusive interview with The Scottish Mail on Sunday, they accuse the NTS of having no interest in helping Canna to thrive as a community and claim it would be happy to let the island, where the population is approaching an all-time low, become a kind of open-air museum inhabited only by NTS employees.
At the Guthrie family’s new home in a farm cottage in Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, framed prints of Canna’s landmarks and seabirds adorn their living room as Mr Guthrie, 39, reflects: ‘We were led up the garden path from the outset. The NTS don’t want a community there, despite talking a good game about it. It’s going to end up deserted, like St Kilda.’
In 2013 the Guthries were living in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, when they answered an advert for the NTS’s Call to Canna family recruitment programme.
The island is just five miles long, with no proper roads, only a handful of houses, no mobile phone reception, and is separated from the mainland by a two-hour ferry trip.
Yet it seemed an idyllic place to raise Ryan, now aged 14, Julie Ann, 12, Erin, ten, and seven-year-old Gordon. Mr Guthrie said: ‘We wanted to get the kids out of the rat race. Just a freer way of life – not having to worry about busy roads and bullying and wearing the right clothes and the right brands.
‘Denise and I loved the outdoors and wanted that lifestyle for our retirement. We thought, “Why wait, why not just do that now?”.’
The stringent interview process included a trip to meet the locals on Canna. Mr Guthrie recalls: ‘Even in October, cold and quite windy, we fell in love with it right away. They were looking for a family that was selfsufficient, not looking for benefits.
‘I was running my own business and could work from anywhere that had a decent internet connection. They had a welcome for us – with cakes, buns, all home baked by the islanders. Everybody was so welcoming and so helpful.
‘At this time there were quite a few empty houses but we were told other families would soon be joining us.’
The Guthries moved into a new, detached, four-bedroom home with a garden, paying £350 per month in rent. Despite howling winter gales and power cuts, it was a dream come true. Summers spent lying on the beach, enjoying turquoise seas and white sands with their island friends, made it all worthwhile.
‘The first year was fantastic,’ said Mr Guthrie. ‘But then we had a meeting with the NTS and they were starting to go back on what they said about bringing other families.
‘I couldn’t believe it. There’s no way we would have moved if we thought our children were going to be left as the only kids on the island.’
The couple persevered, organising community events and welcoming the island’s diverse range of visitors – including wealthy NTS donors.
Mrs Guthrie said: ‘I smiled and acted the part when the donors came but I never felt I could say anything about how things really were.’
Mr Guthrie became an NTScontracted gardener and cleaner for Canna. He said: ‘I had my business but there was nobody else to do these things, so I let go of a contract and stepped in.’ But he soon felt unfairly scrutinised and micro-managed by his new employers and thinks it is because he quizzed them about bringing more families to the island. He said: ‘I felt we were bullied off the island. They’re control freaks.’
Mrs Guthrie had set up her own company, Hebridean Beauty, selling home-made hand creams, soaps, shower gels and candles and was involved in the local community. ‘But there’s no escaping when you feel you’ve got someone watching you 24/7,’ she said. ‘It feels oppressive. I was never comfortable being there on my own when Gordon was away.’
Eighteen months ago, the family announced they were leaving, then decided to give it one more go. But this summer, they finally left.
Mr Guthrie said: ‘ We didn’t want to be defeated, but every day was a battle. I felt I was continually having to watch my back. It has cost us over £10,000 when you factor in all of the moving fees. We’ve been to see a lawyer who told us that we had a case to sue the NTS.’
Canna was signed over to the NTS by its last laird, John Lorne Campbell in 1981. A respected if eccentric Gaelic scholar, he hoped it would become a thriving community. Mr Guthrie said: ‘It’s really sad. He would be turning in his grave.’
More than 20 residents have left Canna since 2011. Among those were
Graham and Olivia Uney, who left for Shetland in 2012, claiming they, too, were bullied.
Their replacements, Duncan and Alison Spence, left with their two children after only nine months.
The Spence family also alleged bullying. Mrs Spence accused the NTS of ‘dragging families’ to remote areas, and ‘wrecking them’. In 2011, Eilidh Soe-Paing, the island’s teacher, left after six years along with her husband Geoff and their four children.
As Scotland’s biggest heritage charity, the NTS owns and manages a diverse portfolio of 129 attractions, including the deserted island of St Kilda. Only this year, Canna was awarded £980,000 by the Big Lottery Fund for a community wind farm and solar array project.
Last night the NTS accused Mr Guthrie of ‘unfounded, and in some cases ridiculous’ claims and insisted staff had ‘gone out of their way’ to assist on a ‘number of issues’.
A spokesman said: ‘The trust’s role on Canna is not to be social engineers. Our responsibilities are for the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of the island and to work in partnership with the Isle of Canna Community Development Trust.’
A spokesman for the community trust said it ‘enjoys a good working relationship with NTS and its staff’ and is ‘extremely disappointed by the comments made by Mr Guthrie’. But despite this the Guthries remain steadfast in their affection for the island.
Mrs Guthrie said: ‘We really loved Canna and we met such lovely people, including some who will be friends for life. When we left I cried every day for a month. But it was the right thing to do.’