Tiny Scots isle once known as ‘Forbidden Island’ offering rare job opportunity

MORE than 20 miles out into the Atlantic off the Scottish west coast, it is known as The Forbidden Island.

Now the Isle of Rum is seeking a new head teacher for the island’s five primary school pupils and two nursery children.

Ferries only run four times-a-week in winter, and it has only one community shop.

In bad weather the Rum can be cut off for days on end. In good weather, in the summer, it is infamous for its fearsome biting midges.

Rum is one of the Small Isles in the Inner Hebrides, lying an hour and a half’s ferry trip away from the nearest mainland port in Mallaig.

The island is inhabited by more than 1,000 red deer, vastly outnumbering the 40 residents in Kinloch village – Rum’s only populated settlement.

The village road is one mile long with a speed limit of 15mph, and you will need a special permit to bring your car.

Rum Primary School has a student roll of five pupils ranging from ages five to 11, and the nursery has two students aged three and four.

It is looking for a full-time head teacher with the contract offering a permanent post, with an annual salary of £61,839.

There are also entitlements to High Remote Allowance of £3,237 per year, as well as Distant Island Allowance of £2,541 per year.

The closing date for applications is today.

Rum is famous for the languishing Kinloch Castle, which was highlighted on the BBC2 Restoration series in 2003 but despite attracting 143,000 votes, it failed to win the £3m prize towards the cost of restoring it.

However it caught the then Prince Charles‘s interest and following the programme he called a meeting at Birkhall, his Deeside retreat, of interested parties, to investigate a possible £12 million restoration package.

Charles visited the castle in 2006.

That attempt fell through and the castle, owned by NatureScot, is still facing an uncertain future after businessman Jeremy Hosking withdrew his £10m bid to form a trust after opposition from some islanders and accusing biodiversity minister Lorna Slater of behaving like an “anarchist”.

On completion in 1901 for industrialist Sir George Bullough, the castle had a staff of 100 and a menagerie of alligators, hummingbirds and turtles.

Guests were greeted by a nude portrait of Monica, the owner’s wife, and there were rumours of indiscreet behaviour in the ballroom, where the orchestra sat behind curtains to ensure guests’ privacy. 

The parties came to an abrupt end in 1939, when Bullough died of a heart attack.

TV personality Griff Rhys Jones has described Kinloch as a victim of bureaucratic neglect.

The poet Sir John Betjeman once said that Kinloch Castle “remains an undisturbed example of pre-1914 opulence.”

Even though Sir George, a handsome Harrow-educated cavalry officer, and Lady Monica – who claimed to be a descendent of Napoleon – only enjoyed their Hebridean idyll for 13 years, they left their mark for posterity.

Lady Monica, who last visited Rum aged 85, bequeathed in her will that the castle’s collection should be left in place – except for restoration. She is interred beside her husband at the family mausoleum on the island.