The Highlanders who don’t want to be forgotten in the election

The STA is calling for the introduction of a “Scotland-specific visa”, external to help “rural and island communities struggling to attract and retain tourism and hospitality workers”.

The 2022 census confirmed that, without migration, Scotland’s population would have fallen over the previous decade, as well as ageing even more rapidly.

As it was, the share of the Highland population aged 14 and under fell from 18.1% in 2001 to 14.8% in 2022. In the same period, the cohort aged 65 and over jumped from 16.3% of the population to 23.7%.

Marcus MacDonald, based in Ullapool but working away in the merchant navy, can believe it.

Speaking to BBC News from Rotterdam, the 31-year-old estimates that only five people from his high school class of 45 remain in the Ullapool area.

Tourism, he says, is both “very, very welcome” and important for the economy of the north-west Highlands but, he says, it has downsides, notably in the pressure on housing stock.

“I don’t think it’s good for the area, either economically or culturally, to be so totally reliant on visitors treating the entire area like a Butlin’s or a Disneyland,” says Mr MacDonald.

“It changes the character of the area from a kind of working demographic to something more like a retirement demographic,” he adds.