Scottish Sea Farms’ homes boost for remote island in Orkney

SALMON farmer Scottish Sea Farms has been granted approval to build six new eco-friendly homes on the remote island of Eday in Orkney.

The £750,000 development will create four new homes for employees of the nearby salmon farm, helping overcome the lack of available accommodation, with a further two homes available to rent by islanders or visitors.

Scottish Sea Farms, together with local landowners Haydn Jones and Nick Lyde of Willowstream, are to build the homes within the secluded hamlet of Mill Bay on Eday, one of the smaller Orkney islands, with just 76 habitable properties for a population of 129 people.

The company’s farm manager at Eday, Phil Boardman, (pictured above) said:‘We’ve been farming on the island for over seven years now and while the conditions for growing salmon are superb, the remote location has made recruitment difficult.

‘Unless employees live on one of the nearby islands, such as Sanday, they face a two-hour commute by boat from Orkney mainland, then have to stay over on one of the islands until their next weekend off, leaving little time for family, food shopping or looking after home and garden.

‘The result is that we have seen valued employees leave with every crop cycle – they loved the job, just not the logistics that go with it.’

Boardman added:‘Step one has been to introduce a twoweek on, two-week off shift pattern, which is enabling the team to balance farm life and home life.

‘Step two, and equally critical, will be building these high spec houses for the team to go home to after each shift, sparing them the commute to other islands and ensuring they have a good quality of life.

‘We gave the team the choice of multi-bedroomed communal homes or single dwelling and the decision was unanimous – they wanted their own space.

‘The bonus of having the two rental homes, meanwhile, is that there will also be somewhere for visitors, contractors and auditors to stay.’

There has been strong support locally for the new homes, said Boardman:‘From the architect, Orkney Islands Council planning team and local Sepa [Scottish Environment Protection Agency] office, to the contractors we’re using and our logistics partners Northwards, who will help transport the homes to the island, local partnerships have been key to making this project happen.

‘Get it right and this eco-friendly development could be the start of things to come for remote communities such as Eday.’