Category: Scotland

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Excommunicated hermits – Scotland

In an item titled “Excommunicated Hermits — and Their Cats — Finally Find Peace,” Religious News Service reports on three Scottish hermits who have been excommunicated by the Catholic Church for their outspoken attacks on the pope and the practices of the contemporary church. The hermits maintain traditionalist views. “We have broken from a false pope, a false magisterium, at the moment, and a false Curia and false bishops and cardinals,” Stephen De Kerdrel told Religion News Service.

The other hermits are Damon Kelly and Sister Colette Roberts. De Kerdrel and Kelly were both Capuchin monks before leaving their order over twenty years ago. Colette Roberts was formerly a medical professional.

URL: https://religionnews.com/2020/02/07/excommunicated-hermits-and-their-cats-finally-find-peace/

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Scotland’s hermit sites

The Scotsman offers a photographic essay titled “Scotland’s hermit hideaways: the caves, castles and hideaways once home to those seeking a solitary life.”

“Caves, old bothies and even islands have been used by those needing space, sanctuary and shelter over the years. From the former bank worker from Dundee who lived in a cave for more that 20 years to the little castle on a Highland beach by an architect needing some time out, here we look at the stories of nine hermits and the places that they called home.” Here are nine photos of historical interest.

URL: https://www.scotsman.com/heritage/scotland-s-hermit-hideaways-the-caves-castles-and-hideaways-once-home-to-those-seeking-a-solitary-life-1-4916012

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Scottish hermit “rescued”

The Telegraph reports on a Scottish hermit living in a remote forest rescued after he pressed the emergency button on his personal locator beacon. The device, his only piece of technology, signaled a medical emergency. Roger Milliard, in his seventies, “built his simple home, which has a gravel floor, in the mid-1980s near a remote loch … [he] has no running water or electricity in the log cabin, but a stream runs beside it and he bathes by lighting a fire under an outdoor bath.”

URL: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/06/scottish-hermit-rescued-remote-forest-will-desperate-return/

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Sara Maitland interviewed

Sara Maitland, author of A Book of Silence (2008), is interviewed by Telegraph (UK) correspondent Peter Stanford. Maitland lives in a shepherd’s cottage (shieling) in Galloway, Scotland, where she continues to write, her latest project being Gossip from the Forest, a reexamination of forests in fairy tales of Grimm and others.

Writes Stanford of Maitland’s solitude:

The things she misses in her shieling, she says, are simpler and very specific. “The first is physical contact in moments of stress, not the big ones, but when I come in from a walk and it has been raining and I am soaked and I have a deep desire for someone to be there to say, ‘God, you’re wet.’ And the second is when someone has annoyed me, usually by email, I have no one there to let off steam with, and so frequently I find myself telling the person I am angry with my reply. I need someone to puncture my rage bubble.”

The other thing she finds herself hankering after, she says, is the sort of catch-all conversation we are having. “I’m a profoundly frivolous person and I grew up with smarty-pants dinner conversations. If I am ever asked to be in Who’s Who, I will put as my hobby deipnosophy, banter-like exchanges round a dinner table.” Couldn’t she just break silence once a month and invite local friends over for a good set-to over supper? “You don’t understand,” she protests, a look of mock horror on her face, “there is hardly a soul within spitting distance of where I live.” Their loss is my gain.

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Scottish hermit interviewed

The Independent interviews Jake Williams, “star” of the recent Two Years at Sea, a Scottish documentary film about his life as a hermit. “Life as a hermit: ‘My life is a great adventure'” is the article title, subtitle: “Jake Williams has lived as a hermit for 30 years and explains why he could not go back to ‘normal life.'” Includes several photos.

URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/life-as-a-hermit-my-life-is-a-great-adventure-7771209.html