SCOTLAND’S largest conservation movement is embroiled in a row with a family who quit the tiny Inner Hebridean island of Canna following a social experiment to boost population numbers.
The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has been accused by Gordon and Denise Guthrie, who took their four children to live on the island, of failing to live up to a plan for more families. It comes as the number of residents fell to just 17.
The Guthries, who quit during the summer, are threatening to sue the NTS for the £10,000 they claim to have spent on moving to the island from Motherwell.
The couple’s four children were the only ones on the island, and the first in three years, forcing the local school to be reopened in 2014.
An initial experiment in teaching the youngsters by a video link from Rum – employing Mrs Guthrie as a £10,000-a-year pupil support officer – was scrapped because web designer Mr Guthrie found it difficult to work in the house at the same time.
After a year and a half, the dream of a new population boom on the Hebridean outpost turned sour and they decided to leave.
In addition, another couple brought to the island by the NTS to run Canna’s only guest house, Tighard, have also gone.
Colin Irvine and his partner David Marr are now based in Edinburgh.
Mr Irvine – a lecturer in performance and theatre who had run the Camus Arts Centre on the island – also operated with Mrs Guthrie one of Canna’s two shops – Hebridean Beauty, selling locally sourced scented products.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Mr Guthrie, 39, who now lives with his wife in a farm cottage in Lesmahagow, said: “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.”
The family had answered an advert for the NTS’s Call to Canna family recruitment programme to live on the 4.3-mile long by one-mile wide island.
They took children Ryan, now 14, Julie Ann, 12, Erin, 10 and Gordon, seven.
Mr Guthrie added: “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?’”
The interview process included a trip to meet islanders. Mr Guthries said: “Even in October, cold and windy, we fell in love with it right away.
“I was running my own business and could work from anywhere that had a decent internet connection. We were told other families would soon be joining us.”
Mr Guthrie went on: “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.”
Mr Guthrie was contracted to the charity as a gardener and cleaner, but soon felt he was being unfairly scrutinised and micro-managed because he had questioned his employers over their plans.
He added: “I felt we were bullied off the island. They’re control freaks.”
The NTS said Mr Guthrie’s claims were “unfounded” and “ridiculous” and insisted staff had “gone out of their way” to assist.
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.”
The community trust said it had a good working relationship with NTS and staff.
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