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I’ve never visited the privately-owned Isle of Muck, one of the smallest islands of the Inner Hebrides, but it sounds absolutely idyllic. It has only just come to my attention and I wish I’d known more about it years ago for I’d like to have spent some time on it and enjoyed its apparent tranquility Muck, which along with its neighbours Eigg, Rum and Canna form the Small Isles, has a population of 38 and a single road of just 1.5 miles long. There is no mains electricity, though the islanders are served by wind power, backed up by an emergency generator. There is a variety of accommodation available including, of all things, a yurt. The islanders grow their own lamb and beef, breed highland ponies and, among other things, make rugs, felt and baskets. There is shooting and mackerel fishing and, for those who just like looking or pointing a camera, forty species of birds along with Grey Atlantic and Common seals and porpoises. Minke whales and basking sharks are also seen in the summer months. With a history stretching back to the Mesolithic, Muck would seem an interesting place to visit and stay awhile. The island is served by ferry but visitors may not bring their cars ashore with them. So why has this idyllic Isle of Mull come to my attention? It is simply because the health and safety police have been at it again and ordered the islanders to stop drinking the natural spring water they have been drinking since time immemorial. They have been told that they must now import expensive mineral water from the mainland even though no-one has become ill from drinking the natural stuff drawn from the island’s eight springs and which, apparently, failed the last water sampling. To add insult to injury, the Scottish Executive have said that the islanders can apply for a grant of £15,200 to install ultraviolet bacterial cleaning systems. Strewth! Wouldn’t you have thought that, in the circumstances and for the small sum of money involved, they’d have just given the wretched things away?
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Highland Council, Inner Hebrides, Isle of Muck, natural spring water, Scottish Executive, the Small Isles, ultraviolet bacterial water cleaning system,
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