Solitude calling
Foula is far more connected now than it was 80 years ago. For one, there are flights from Foula to the main island of the Shetlands, called Mainland, four days a week – thanks to an air strip that residents built in the 1970s. Still, with no mobile reception and so few residents, Foula can feel far away in more ways than geographical.
«There’s no traffic, no noise, no noise pollution. Your phone’s not going,» Mitchell said. «I loved it.» Even the telephone booth shown here doesn’t work – though there is a public phone at the airport, and residents all have their own land lines.
But it can feel different if you’re a local, when even going to the dentist or grocery store requires a flight or boat trip over the ocean. But that doesn’t mean islanders aren’t connected, according to Stuart Taylor, who has lived on Foula for more than 30 years, since moving there with family when he was 10. «This thing about us being cut off and all that, you don’t feel that at all. I don’t think it’s even real,» he said. «We still have a phone, and internet, and electricity and TV; what exactly are you cut off from?»
Still, Taylor admitted, it’s not quite the same for visitors. In particular, he remembers one tourist who came from Edinburgh, saying he was in search of peace and quiet. He lasted one day before taking the next boat back. «He couldn’t actually handle the solitude,» Taylor said, chuckling. (Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty)