THE first mountain I ever climbed was Stac Pollaidh in the Highlands of Scotland. From the summit the view is breathtaking in all directions. To the west the sun sets in a fiery golden glow over the Summer Isles and in the distance the Outer Hebrides lie silhouetted on the horizon.

This magical scene moved me to silent tears and a huge magnet inside me locked on to its target - out there on the darkening horizon - somehow knowing that one day I would be there. As I descended the slippery scree of the mountain side I was already rationalising why it would be unlikely that I could ever follow the pull of the internal magnet and actually live out there on one of those islands.

Years went by and my career, marriage and children became part of the real life going on all around me. My distant dream remained closeted where it belonged for the time being as an impractical move for us all. Then my successful practical life began to unravel as I suffered a head injury in a car accident, began to struggle with the demands of work, family and friends and saw the doors shutting one by one to even my day to day dreams of a future for us all, let alone my secret internal magnet pulling me towards my ultimate dream of life on a Hebridean Island.

The reality was far more challenging as I was now a single parent with three children stretching my weakened abilities between two part time jobs which bore no resemblance to my chosen career but allowed me to juggle my young children's time table.

Views of the mountains of Scotland and the stunning crest of Stac Pollaidh were only visible from my laptop computer as I searched for emotional inspiration before sleep at night.

Thoughts of chickens and a dog at my heel only came from magazine browsing.

I wondered briefly whether I might retire there in thirty years time once my children had less need of me. I had completely given up tuning into my magnet and feeling the pull towards that horizon.

Then one evening, during a particularly tiring week when my single parent juggling act seemed to be more demanding and isolating than usual, I settled down to Google search for inspiring views of the Highlands and Islands. A simple thing happened that changed our world. A private advert for the sale of an old wireless navigation station on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides appeared on the screen in front of me. I have no idea how I had accessed it and it was a poor quality photo of a worn out rambling place that should not have looked appealing to any rational soul. I was entranced and made the phone call there and then.

Six months later, an old camper van bulging at the seams with three children, two cats, two hamsters, a road weary mother and all of our basic essentials possessions pulled up outside the Old Decca Station in Ness on the magical Isle of Lewis. We were here on the fiery red sunset horizon that I had locked my magnet into so many years before.

Behind me lay the drudgery of single parenting, dead end uninspiring term time jobs, feeling like the only single parent on the block at parties and functions, and ignoring the dream.

Before me lay a huge old navigation station of empty machinery rooms and workshops ideal for our future family home, keepers' cottages just waiting for an overhaul and the arrival of holiday guests and a half-acre walled plot simply begging to be turned into a small holding. All this was surrounded by beautiful open machair land set behind sand dunes and a sweeping idyllic white Hebridean beach where the wind would blow away the cobwebs and fill us with new energy for our family life in the Outer Hebrides.

Many funny stories were to unfold from here as we settled into life on the island, struggled with the native Gaelic language, learnt how to care for chickens and sheep while trying to renovate our home at the same time as starting up our holiday business. At difficult times over the next few years I would have one important thought in my mind ...

I had turned my life around from one where a dream was impractical and foolish to follow to a life where the following of a dream had given us a home, an income, happiness and a sense of achievement in all we had accomplished as a family together.

On our web (www.deccacottages.co.uk) you will find pictures and information about our holiday cottage and this wind sept stunning part of the world.

  • To be continued.