THE nights draw in fast up here, and as winter sets in with a succession of storms there’s plenty of time to reflect on the progress we’ve made.

We worked long and hard to get the wool workshop up and weatherproof before these storms rolled in, often coming down off the croft in the moonlight.

Helped by a motley crew of volunteers, some from the village and some who came from further afield – inspired a little by our adventures to come and get a taste of our island for themselves – we barely got the roof finished before an unexpectedly early arrival threw plans into disarray.

A real highlight of this big push was a cadre of firstyear zoology students from Anglia Ruskin University on a field trip to Rum, who in exchange for a lift across the island in our pick-up, carried all of our roofing and floorboards up to the croft. Villagers dipped in and out, lending us invaluable assistance, sometimes in return for favours and often just for fun and to be part of the story; we learnt that the last private building to go up on the island was the castle, built in 1897 by our last English laird, Sir George Bullough. All told, we moved six tonnes of timber and six tonnes of aggregate and cement, by hand, up to the site since the summer.

A builder friend challenged me as to what lessons I’d learned. Build at the bottom of the hill next time, sprung to mind.

The weather for all this was at times kind and at other times merciless. When it was dry we worked all day and into the night, and when it poured with rain and blew a gale we fretted about the roofless building getting wet and found other things to occupy ourselves with.

The state of the sky and sea is ever-present in the minds and chatter of island people.

The guided walks I began offering has grown into guiding expeditions into our mountains and using our truck to run “4x4 safaris”

into the interior of the island.

We meet folk off the ferry, provide them with a homecooked picnic and take them to meet the red deer and wild ponies, often being lucky enough to spot a golden eagle hunting on the way back down to the boat.

There was a successful nest above the croft this year, and whenever I took clients out the chick invariably put in a performance for us. We also played host to two BBC camera crews, filming for The One Show and a Gaelic language documentary about island life.

We don’t know what next year will bring, but we are in a position to bring stock onto the croft and begin the long process of coaxing the land back to good heart. We will stock with Boreray and Shetland sheep – rare breeds with interesting wool, and tough enough to thrive in our harsh environment.

Also Dexter cattle to eat down the wilder and thicker rushes and grasses. We’re in negotiation with Scottish Natural Heritage, who run the nature reserve, to open up 50- odd hectares of land for common grazing – an ancient system of farming, largely but not entirely forgotten in England and Wales, in which the land is managed communally and democratically by a group of crofters.

We will take our first wool clip in the summer, the first on the island for generations, and we should be in a position to accommodate visitors on the croft itself, as well as being busy on the hill with clients. Most of all though, we are looking forward to our first full year on the island, and our first year as parents to our new arrival – little Maggie Copland.