PHOTOGRAPHS: ANDORRA TURISME, LIAM JONES, J NASH
Find Neverland in Scotland
‘Second to the right, and straight on till morning’, is how Peter Pan describes the ambiguous location of faraway Neverland to Wendy in Peter Pan. The book’s author JM Barrie found his own Neverland in the Scottish island of Eilean Shona, and though the route there is somewhat complicated, it’s at least one that grown-ups can follow. This remote refuge lies just off the west coast, at the mouth of Loch Moidart, between Skye and Mull. Barrie used it as a holiday home in the 1920s, after the success of his escapist children’s book. Today, the 2½-mile-long island remains a fantastic place to walk, paint or otherwise hide away from regular responsibilities for a week. Leaving the mainland on a boat trip past the ruins of Castle Tioram, temporary lost boys and girls step off onto humpbacked, forest-fringed Eilean Shona, and fnd their way to a handful of self-catering cottages. The secluded and newly remodelled Old Schoolhouse is particularly romantic, set above a small bay.