I moved to Ullapool in 2014 to take up the post of Head Teacher at the High School. My first real experience of the Island was witnessing the Litorral Art Project with the artist Julia Barton, where some of the school pupils brought litter ashore, towed in lines behind a skiff. It was a surprisingly beautiful sight but brought home to me as well the importance of looking after our coastlines. I then went to an Isle Martin meeting where I realised there were wonderful opportunities for all sorts of learning for our young people on the island. I hope over the coming years to be able to help make this happen.

I moved to Rhue at the end of 2012 after first visiting the area in 1985 and returning regularly over the years. Now retired from working at Jaguar Land Rover on automotive electrical circuit design I have plenty of time to explore the unfrequented hills of the local Loch Broom area.

My introduction to Isle Martin was visiting the festival in 2017 where I really enjoyed the atmosphere and people at the event. I became a member of the trust after my experience on the island and started volunteering on clearing the paths of bracken and the ruined cottages of the invasive trees and brambles. From those first initial clearances we have now waymarked and cleared some more routes around the island to the summit cairn and other viewpoints where visitors can sit and experience the peace and solitude of a day on our special island.

My aim as a director is to keep the access to the island safe and open to as many people as possible by keeping up the volunteer work and encouraging more to come and help.

Having grown up in New Zealand I had wonderful experiences in the outdoors which have helped to mould my character and influence how I interact with people and places. It’s no coincidence then that I chose to move to the Highlands in 2004 with a young family and ever since I have been in awe of the beauty and ruggedness of its landscape. I work as a primary teacher in Ullapool and have worked extensively on Isle Martin with some of our partner agencies such as CALLP, The John Muir Trust and the local rangers in supporting the transition of primary 7 pupils to high school. Isle Martin, our community island, is a beautiful setting with incredible potential for outdoor education, creative inspiration and developing practical skills.

I joined the board because I wanted to help make Isle Martin a place used and enjoyed by the whole community.

I live with my family on a croft in Achiltibuie; we moved from Ullapool in 2016. We are doubly blessed by feeling at home in both places!

Our croft is right beside the beach on the shores of Lochbroom, and we don’t have to walk far up the hill to be able to see Isle Martin. Sometimes I daydream about swimming there!

I am a teacher, a writer, a singer and a student, but a thread of place and community runs through my whole life, both local and in a wider sense. I find that I draw strength from connections and shared concern, from conducting the local Gaelic choir and speaking or singing at local events to linking with wider political and philosophical movements. Isle Martin has such a special place in the community’s past, and also in its future – I feel privileged to be associated with it

I moved up from England in 2009 to live and work on the Isle of Tanera Mòr in the Summer Isles, where my parents had been caring for the land and running a small tourism business since the mid-90s. My background and passion is nature, and encouraging others to love and respect it.

The first time I visited Isle Martin I felt the excitement and peace of arriving on a wild island, with its precious natural and cultural history. After 11 years working on Tanera I now have a fair bit of experience of the joys and challenges of looking after a small island.

I joined the Isle Martin board in Spring 2020 and I’m looking forward to learning more about the land itself, and helping decide how we manage and care for it. I live in Achiltibuie with my young family, so I am particularly keen that the people of Coigach benefit from our joint ownership of (and responsibility for) Isle Martin.