The Move to Kilchoan

From the time of our first visit to Ardnamurchan in 1993 we kept going up for our holidays as often as possible and finally decided to take another look at the shop. It wasn't in any better condition but in 1996 we made an offer for it, which was accepted.

What we bought was the house at left in this picture, a one-time cottar's cottage, along with the attached wooden garage and Calor gas compound, the shop which is to the right of the house and a large store room beyond it, and the petrol station on this side of the road. The previous owner's accounts were in a mess so we didn't know whether the business would make money but felt that it was time to make a change in our lives. David was at Felsted and could travel up for his holidays, the older girls were making their separate ways in life, and Rachael could attend the local primary school.

We left Maldon on 1st January 1997. The weather was cold, with snow on the ground. We drove to Shropshire to stay with Tony and Hilary, then on to North Wales, where Lizzie and Tom were working in an architect's practice. We spent the night with them, and then headed north, our next stop being Oban, where we met the accountant we had been recommended. The following day, the 6th January, we were in Fort William to meet the lawyer and drove on to Kilchoan that evening in a white frost. All the waterfalls were frozen so Rachael called them icefalls.

We stayed in a house in Kilchoan and spent a great deal of time in the shop learning how to run it, while Rachael joined Kilchoan Primary School. Despite considerable problems with establishing the ownership of the land on which the shop buildings were sited, mostly caused by our lawyer's dismal failure to carry out the proper searches, on 21st January 1997 we moved into the house next door to the shop and took over the business.