‌

The day before we were due to exchange contracts on the sale of our house in Croydon in 1984, we received a letter from the Bank of Scotland rejecting our loan application. We needed this to complete our purchase of The Three Chimneys and had been negotiating since April. It was now the beginning of October and we were due to be out of the house by the following midday.

Having been given a firm, verbal go-ahead we had been pressing the local Scottish bank manager for written confirmation for many weeks and had been repeatedly assured that a letter was on its way. The letter we tore open in excited anticipation was curt and to the point. The Bank of Scotland had decided against backing our move to Skye with a business loan of £25,000. We were absolutely devastated. The final piece of the whole jigsaw was missing.