On Your Farm - A eureka moment on Eigg

They spent a few days on the island and have been telling the Lochaber Times about the recording.

“It took us quite awhile to arrange the trip in the first place,” says Kathleen.

“We had to abandon several attempts to get across because of bad weather and ferry cancellations. Interruptions to the ferry service are a major headache for the islanders and a big challenge for the farmers and crofters.”

Getting feed supplies, transporting animals to and from market, arranging appointments with the vet, sorting out machinery repairs and equipment deliveries are all subject to the ferry timetables.

They are challenges which former music journalist-turned-hill farmer Sarah Boden has learned to live with. Her family moved away from Eigg when she was a child but she has a deep love of the island and decided to return 15 years ago when she was offered redundancy from her job as a music critic on a London newspaper.

“I come from a farming background and I always loved being out on the hills,” she told the production team.

“When the redundancy offer came up I saw it as an opportunity to come back.”

Sarah joined her father Alex in the tenancy of Sandamhor, a 2,500 acre farm now owned by the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust.

They reared sheep and cattle and managed a number of bio-diversity schemes.

Alex has recently had to retire to look after his wife who has been diagnosed with dementia and Sarah took over the running of the farm herself.

Prompted by the change in family circumstances, Sarah has made a major decision about its future – a switch from sheep to cattle and to go organic.

She said: “I had been reading and thinking about it for about four years and then I just had a eureka moment where I felt that raising cattle can fit in with regenerative farming and looking after the land in a more traditional way.

“The cattle will graze the rough pastures and the hillsides, and hopefully be more manageable than the sheep. Two thirds of the land is only really accessible on foot and it is such demanding work when the winter storms set in.”