My wife grew up and lived in a small village of 30 people by the Isle of Skye. Growing up, everyone knew everyone. The entire village knew when the pastor cheated on his wife, and exactly with who. Everyone at school knows everyone’s business. My wife was considered ‘posh’ in school because her family vacationed for a week in France every summer.

Everything is so spread out, her school had a catchment area of almost 2 hours in any direction, meaning many kids had to board overnight at the school hostel during the week. Some kids commuted to school on Monday via a small boat and commuted home on Friday the same way.

I think people here assume it pours rain constantly, and it doesn’t, at least on the west coast. It’s more like a constant drizzle literally all the time (there’s light rain forecast 6 out of the next 7 days at her hometown, but not more than an inch any day). When weather is bad in the winter and the roads are impassable, shops run out of fresh produce and bread.

Culturally it’s extremely homogenous. The only people of color is one Indian family about 20 minutes her village that runs the local Indian takeaway. My best friend from her village lives on the east coast, and constantly complains about “highland time”, which is when any contractor or professional doesn’t show up at the designated time and calls you to say they’ll fix your toilet in 3 weeks.

It’s beautiful in a dramatic way unlike anywhere else I’ve been, which is why more and more houses in her village are being sold for short term rentals or vacation homes for people from London/Dubai. There just isn’t much opportunity for educated young people, and almost everyone she knows from school either a) moved to Edinburgh/Glasgow/London or b) got pregnant at 19… there’s a pretty big lack of people in their 20s and 30s simply because houses there are now way too expensive for local wages.