Debacle in Shetland: News About Fair Isle

Two years ago, I posted about my brief encounter with Fair Isle. For the uninitiated, Fair Isle is a tiny island located halfway between Orkney and Shetland. It's quite sparsely populated, famous for its sea bird colonies and knitwear exports, and extremely remote. Most of the island is owned by the National Trust for Scotland, which gets to interview anyone who wants to move there. In 2013, I said of Fair Isle:

"In all honesty, as we were passing by and I was taking pictures, all I could think about - probably informed by my bizarre experiences in Shetland - was how only a mongrel idiot would sail past Fair Isle and think to themself, "Hey, that looks like a great place to establish a colony!" It sort of makes you wonder whether the colonists were volunteers, or voluntold."

Well, wouldn't you know it, the population of Fair Isle is in decline, and the Shetland Islands Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are trying to change that.

Shetland Times: Plan to boost Fair Isle community

The Scotsman: Remote Fair Isle seeking new residents

BBC: Bid to boost Fair Isle population launched

Does anyone think I could get my application approved? Anyway, for a bit more footage of Fair Isle, click here to see a segment from the BBC's Coast program.