When Clare Coghill moved from her home on the Isle of Skye to the bright lights of London she was eager to launch herself into a brilliant media career and try out city life for the first time.
She learned a lot during her time in the capital, including that we should sometimes be careful what we wish for.
“Growing up on Skye, I lived a slightly disconnected life,” said Clare. “I always had a desire to move to London and experience the buzz and live in one of the best cities in the world. But after a while the reality wore a bit thin.”
Clare, now 31, moved to London in 2018 when she landed a job as a researcher with Hat Trick Productions.
On a personal level life in London was great. On her first night she went to a party where she met her now-husband, Dave Stroud, 35, a software designer. She moved into his flat in Bethnal Green, and the couple adopted a rescue dog, Peggy.
Work, however, turned out not to be the right fit.
Clare, always a keen cook, decided that what she really wanted to do was be a chef. Stints working at Scottish street food café Deeney’s, in Leyton, and The Lighthouse in Walthamstow, followed, and by 2020 she felt ready to set up shop on her own.
The Gaelic inspired Café Cùil had its grand opening in Dalston in February 2020, but the excitement of running her own kitchen was shortlived. Five weeks later the UK went into lockdown and Clare had to draw down the shutters. “It had had a great buzz about it, and lots of London Scots coming in, but before I knew it I had to close,” she said.
To avoid spending lockdown cooped up with Peggy in a compact London flat Clare and Dave hired a car and make the epic 630-plus mile journey to the Inner Hebrides, where they stayed with her parents.
“I thought we would be back in two or three weeks,” said Clare. “Three months later we looked at each other and said that the quality of life is so much better here, maybe we should stay.”
Life on Skye is certainly very different to London.
“We feel that the access to nature is unparalleled,” said Clare. “We can look out of our window and see the ocean, and we can walk for miles and never see another person.”
There are, of course, things Clare misses about the capital — the global cuisines on offer, the culture, and the vibrancy. What she doesn’t miss are the crowds, the pollution, and the traffic. “On Skye the worst traffic jam you will get is if a herd of cows is on the road,” she said.
In September 2021 the couple set down roots by buying a four-bedroom turn-of-the-century stone house in the village of Carbost. The run-down property, which came with a separate two bedroom bungalow annexe, cost £395,000.
Dave still owns his London flat. Not because he wants to retain a foothold in London but because the building has fallen foul of the fire safety regulations introduced following the Grenfell Tower fire, and is therefore unmortgageable.
After a year of work their Skye house is now shipshape and the bungalow is in use as a two bedroom Airbnb.
In March 2022 Clare launched Café Cùil mark II. “It is triple the size of Dalston, and the rent is half the amount,” she said “And even though Skye’s population is tiny it is booming with tourists at the moment. I actually serve way more people per day than I did in Dalston.”
Happy on Skye Clare now looks back on her years in London as a great learning curve.
“I think it is important to have these experiences and open yourself up to the world even when it is overwhelming,” she said. “After living in the city we knew what we valued most.”
