When Lewis MacMillan and Lois Mackenzie met as teenagers, they had lived their whole lives in the small isolated community on the Isle of Lewis.
Lewis and Lois
After moving to the mainland for university and completing their postgraduate degrees in Glasgow, they said they still value the community and natural wonder that island life provides.
The couple met on the island at church and have been together for eight years. The two got engaged on Bosta Beach in the north of Lewis last summer.
Lois said: “Some of my earliest memories of growing up on Lewis are the long summer days I would spend on the beach in front of our home.
“When explaining island life to my friends on the mainland, I tell them about the island’s beauty, but also about how traditional and different life is on Lewis.”
The couple retreated back to their summer jobs on the island just in time to dodge having to spend the entirety of the coronavirus lockdown in the city.
Lois said: “I’ve had a set summer job here since before I moved to uni which I love. It’s in the middle of nowhere and near so many beautiful beaches and walks so I had always planned to come back for this summer.
“It just happened to work out this year that the virus hit and back home on Lewis was the right place to be.”
“There just aren’t a lot of jobs available in the public sector as there really isn’t a whole lot of industry on the island. It’s hard for people to find work after they come back from school.”
Their story serves as a tell-tale for what many young adults from the islands are experiencing when they graduate from uni.
Lois said: “There just aren’t a lot of jobs available in the public sector as there really isn’t a whole lot of industry on the island. It’s hard for people to find work after they come back from school.”
According to Jonathan Hopkins of the Hutton institute, many studies show that the population of working-class aged individuals is on the downturn in all of Scotland and this statistic is likely to affect island communities greatly.
Jonathan said: “These islands are already struggling to keep this demographic in their communities.
“With the open availability of education, many of the young adults leave the islands to go to university and don’t come back as they don’t see much opportunity for job growth.”
Lois said that she and Lewis are not planning to live on the island in the long term.
She said: “Lois is a business major and I have a background in English and Journalism.
“There just really aren’t a whole lot of jobs besides what you find in the public sector that would really suit what we want to do with our careers.”