From Hampshire to the Hebrides: one family’s adventure
TWhen a remote island appealed for a new teacher, Laura Marriner decided it was time for a life change, she tells he Marriners’ home in the Hampshire market town of Andover is stacked high with cardboard boxes. Removal vans wait outside, and five-year-old Charlie and 20-month-old Atticus run around the mayhem, while their parents, Laura and Dean, check to ensure nothing is left behind.
The family are days away from embarking on their biggest adventure. This weekend, they are moving to Muck – a remote Hebridean island, 600 miles away, with a population of just 38.
Earlier this year, parents on the island posted an appeal on Facebook for a new teacher for their primary school of seven children. It went viral, and Highland Council was inundated with applications from all over the globe. Laura was among them – and when she was offered it decided to accept the job.
“It’s the bravest thing we have ever done,” admits the 31-year-old. “We’ve made a nice life for ourselves here in Andover and it’s comfortable. We always know what to expect. This will be completely different.”
The couple had been visiting Laura’s parents in Cornwall, back in August, when her father showed her the job advert, offering a salary of up to £35,000 and a three-bed flat above the school for minimal rent. Laura, who has a degree in education from the University of Reading, was then teaching in a local Hampshire school.
“I was happy with where I was,” she says. “But it kept popping into my head. I thought, ‘what if we did that? Wouldn’t it be amazing?’”
To her surprise, her husband Dean, 33, a manager for a health insurance company, and born and bred in Andover, was instantly on board. “I do have all these connections here, like my job with a decent salary that I’ve worked towards for years, as well as all my family,” he says. “But you’ve got to take those opportunities when they come along, because you don’t want to wonder why you didn’t do it later on in life. People often don’t do it because they have children, but we’re doing it
we have children. We want to give the boys an adventure.”
Neither he nor the boys have visited the island. Laura drove 1,000 miles on a six-day round trip to see their future home before they made the decision. She was immediately taken in by the “gorgeous” scenery: “It’s all farmland with white houses dotted around. The beaches are white sand; it looks like a piece of the Seychelles when the sun is shining.”
Muck will be a world away from the Marriners’ current life, with Costa and Waitrose just minutes from their home and central London a 40-minute train journey away. The island is a similar size to Andover, but has a population a thousandth of the size. It only got 24hour electricity in 2013. There is no shop, pub or post office, let alone restaurant or bar. The nearest shop – a Cooperative – is in Mallaig, on the mainland, a two-hour ferry away.
“There is broadband in the school,” smiles Laura, “but no mobile phone signal. I didn’t have any signal for four days when I went up [to visit the island]. Thankfully, there is a landline.”
She is looking forward to the remoteness and the break from technology, which she believes will be beneficial to her boys’ upbringing. “The phone won’t be ringing all the time. We won’t be checking Facebook every five minutes, and we can enjoy