A Kilchoan Diary

We were up in the hills above Ormsaigbeg this afternoon in the first real sun we've seen for weeks. This really is a place of contrasts - walking briskly, it was so warm that a t-shirt was quite sufficient, until we came back down to the road at about 3.30, into the shadow thrown byMaol Buidhe, when it was suddenly cold.

It's at moments like this when we most appreciate how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful place. But the concept of a 'rural idyll' goes a little too far when one reads a comment like the one below in response to our demand that remote areas like West Ardnamurchan and Glenelg & Arnisdale should not have their services - in particular, their medical services - downgraded:

"Please try to adopt some realism. If you enjoy the benefits of living in a remote location there are going to be some disadvantages. In Glenelg one of them used to be getting the Sunday papers on a Monday. Also you may have to have to wait a while if you're cut and bleeding in Arnisdale! People living in remote places generally have a grasp of how to tackle emergencies themselves, like with a bandage, or a tourniquet. They don't run to A&E at the slightest excuse like some of the incomers might be used to."

The attitude that, because we live in a beautiful place, we should be made to suffer in other ways, is bizarre. We suffer anyway - consider the price we have to pay for fuel out here, or the way that we cannot just pop out to B&Q if we need a new curtain rail, or we can't go to cinemas, restaurants or theatres without launching a major logistical operation. The writer will be demanding next that we be flogged twice a week for our privileges.

To see the context of this comment, go to Charles Kennedy's facebook page, here.

Many thanks to May McNicol for drawing The Diary's attention to this.