“Life on the Rocks” – film

Life on the Rocks is a 20-minute documentary film about a newsly-wed husband and wife naturalists who spent three years in virtual isolation on a rugged Scottish island studying the bird population. From Psyche Films:

“Two newlyweds carve out a life on a small rock island, among the seabirds

The Bass Rock is a small volcanic island just off the east coast of Scotland. Prominent in the Scottish imagination for its steep terrain and location in the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh, the island has had a sparse and intermittent human population across the centuries. Its most notable and sustained inhabitants are the northern gannets that have dwelled on the island’s jagged cliffs throughout recorded history. With a population of roughly 150,000 birds, their colony is the largest in the world.

The English naturalist June Nelson is one of the few people who have lived on the Bass Rock. For three years in the early 1960s, she and her late husband, the ornithologist Bryan Nelson, who was researching gannets at the University of Oxford, made the island their makeshift home. Living and working out of a small, derelict chapel, they dedicated themselves to observing and recording the behaviours and ecology of the birds. The then-newlyweds had little contact with the outside world, but forged a happy life together, thriving in conditions most would find gruelling.

In the short documentary Life on the Rocks, Nelson revisits her full and focused years on the Bass Rock. Combining sweeping, cinematic black-and-white shots of the island with a string score, the UK director George Pretty crafts a poignant account of Nelson’s cherished time there, as well as her emotional return. Mining Nelson’s memories and old photographs, the film explores how the husband-and-wife team found happiness on this peculiar patch of Earth, and among its many avian inhabitants. But, more than just a fondness for the past, Nelson communicates an impassioned urgency to protect the plummeting global sea-bird population – which has declined by 70 per cent in her lifetime – asking ‘What right have we to deprive [future generations] of this wonderful place?”

URL: https://psyche.co/films/two-newlyweds-carve-out-a-life-on-a-small-rock-island-among-the-seabirds; also available at https://vimeo.com/376345749

“Against the Tide” – Film

Eremitism has its parallels, including solitude and “intentional community.” This last is the context for Against the Tide, a 13-minute documentary film produced by Aeon Video.

From the website: (byline): “Living off-grid on a remote Scottish island is a mix of rejection and acceptance.” Text: “On the small Scottish island of Erraid, members of an off-the-grid community seek to live as close to nature as possible, pursuing a sustainable alternative to the consumerism of the outside world. This means days spent working the land and relying on one another. Against the Tide follows a woman named Gill who decided to upend her life after a relationship breakup, and ‘risk the unknown’ by moving to the island. Capturing the contemplative pace of life on Erraid, the Scotland-based filmmaker Giulia Candussi follows Gill as her six-month trial stay comes to a close, and she and her fellow community members decide if she’ll become a permanent resident.”

URL: https://aeon.co/videos/living-off-grid-on-a-remote-scottish-island-is-a-mix-of-rejection-and-acceptance

“Hermit,” Children’s play

In May 2022, the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival presented the play “Hermit,” a nonverbal mime performance. The Festival has posted a one-minute trailer and this description:

“There is a square. Is it a house? There is sound. What happens inside? A lid opens. Is there something inside? What is inside? Who is inside?

Hermit is an original, visual, funny and moving performance about being alone and coming home.

With a background in music theatre and modern mime, Simone de Jong creates work based around music, movement and imagination, with performances which appeal to the multiple senses of its young audience, in a secretive way.”

URL: https://youtu.be/8KFjIMjIKX4

Ken Smith – update

STVNews reports that Scotland hermit Ken Smith, subject of the documentary film The Hermit of Treig, surprised attendees by personally appearing at the Glasgow Film Festival that featured the film about him. For an interview with the film director Lizzie MacKenzie (pictured, right), visit https://youtu.be/vSW5HlKl7Y0

URL: https://news.stv.tv/scotland/man-living-as-a-hermit-in-the-scottish-highlands-makes-surprise-appearance-at-glasgow-film-festival

Marcus Moon, Scotland hermit


Marcus Moon of the Scottish village of Lybster, a hermit living off-grid, without power or running water, recently self-published a book in tribute to Mobius, a goat he befriended and kept in youthful years when he was an itinerant busker with horse and wagon — and goats. Settling in the small rural spot, Moon assembled his house himself and planted gardens, trees, and an extensive orchard . He hopes that the native trees will become a forest.

Marcus Moon with the book he recently self-published about his travels with Morbius the goat. Picture: DGS

Moon tells the John O’Groat Journal and Caithness Courier that his book celebrates “a way of life that has been lost … It’s about a way of life that was community based and where everybody knew their neighbours and things were produced locally. That way of life has just been thrown aside. A lot of the old style of community has been lost – that is a big theme of the book.”

URL: https://www.johnogroat-journal.co.uk/news/pictures-lybster-hermits-book-is-tribute-to-morbius-the-go-261331/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook