Life on Fair Isle has given Katy Phenix and her family the time together they had been missing. The 33-year-old former secondary school history teacher moved to the island in July with her partner Josh Moore, 35, and their children Teddy, 11, and Hetty, six. They left Redcar in North Yorkshire without ever having set foot on the island.
Fair Isle sits roughly midway between Orkney and Shetland, measures about three miles long and is owned by the National Trust for Scotland. Around 60 people call it home. For the Phenix-Moore family, the move was a deliberate step away from a life they felt was slipping past.
A Different Kind of Work
Katy has taken on part-time crofting, sharing pasture land to raise livestock. She has also started working in early years education. The shift from classroom to croft has been stark, but the family says they feel fortunate.
Before the move, Katy described a routine where family time was squeezed into weekends and holidays. The demands of a mortgage, a car and the jobs needed to sustain them left little room for anything else. Fair Isle, she said, removed those pressures.
Josh has found his electrical skills in strong demand. Fair Isle runs off-grid, relying on wind and solar power with a diesel generator as backup. He is helping replace the island’s batteries with new lithium units, alongside more everyday work fixing lights and sockets for residents.
Small School, Big Plans
The island has a primary school and nursery, a shop, a post office and a community hall. Teddy and Hetty are two of only five pupils at the primary school. Teddy hopes another family with children will arrive so he can start a football team. Hetty says the family’s seven pets, brought from North Yorkshire, are enjoying island life.
The couple, engaged for several years, plan to marry on Fair Isle in 2027. The church, Katy noted, is right next door. They also hope another family will join the community early next year.
A House and Croft on Offer
The National Trust for Scotland has advertised a five-bedroom house and a 12-acre croft for rent. The trust is encouraging applicants with crofting and land management experience, trade skills such as plumbing, or those looking to build a craft business on the island. Angus Murray, the trust’s operations manager for Fair Isle, said it was seeking hard-working and enthusiastic people who would bring skills, creativity and care to the place. Applications close on Sunday 8 November.
Eileen Thomson, who chairs the Fair Isle committee, said everyone on the island has a role to play. Islanders serve in the fire service, the shop and the school. She said new tenants should be multi-skilled, because big jobs, from gathering sheep on the common grazing to making hay bales in summer, need every available pair of hands. Creative newcomers could also support Fair Isle knitwear, a textile developed on the island in the early 19th Century.
For Katy, the move has delivered the family time she and Josh were seeking. Four months in, the couple say they have settled into a completely different rhythm and feel really lucky.
