Rural Voices: Establishing the Isle20 Social Enterprise

I’m Rhoda, and I work as a Digital Consultant and crofter on the Isle of Tiree.

Rhoda outside her droft in Tiree with her dog who is carrying a buoy

Hi, I’m Rhoda!

One of my favourite things about Tiree is our 360 degree views of sky – the huge horizons, it’s so easy to breathe deeply.

Since COVID-19 lockdown began, day to day life on a practical level hasn’t changed much, to be honest. I’ve missed popping in to see folk and having a natter. Life actually got busier for me as a few projects took off!

With my work, I love the variety – no day is the same. The most difficult thing is time management – working between multiple projects with varying deadlines and fitting the croft in around it all! During lockdown I also established a social enterprise called isle20.com. It allows businesses in the Scottish islands that were dependent on tourism to sell their wares online. View over the sea of Tiree

With things being busy – I’m not sure what downtime is really! When I do get a few hours to myself I like to get the boat out and go fishing. But that depends on the weather and the tides, so it doesn’t happen very often.

I wanted to be part of RuralCovidLife as it’s so important to hear the rural perspective about the last few months. It’s great the survey is here to do that. COVID-19 has been challenging no matter where you live. Rural areas which have a greater than average reliance on tourism have had a very unique set of circumstances. It’s been incredible to watch communities pulling together and see innovation in action. People have been willing to adapt their business models and try new things. Hopefully the results of the survey will be a great basis from which to learn and to build for the future.

Rhoda is a member of our rural advisory group. The group contributed to the design of our survey RuralCovidLife to ensure it was relevant to rural communities across Scotland.

Image of the beach of Tiree, Scotland