Yahoo News School closes on small Scottish island of Canna after all four of its pupils leave
A school on a tiny remote Scottish island has closed after all four of its pupils left.
The school on Canna in the Inner Hebrides is now empty after the Guthrie family quit the island.
It has emerged husband and wife Gordon and Denise Guthrie left the island with their children, the school’s only pupils, during the summer.
The school on the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) owned island will only reopen if another family with children move there.
Canna is one of the Small Isles along with Eigg, Rum and Muck and has a population of only 17 people.
A spokeswoman for the NTS said the trust will meet the Isle of Canna Community Development Trust this week to ‘discuss a strategy for the future development of Canna’.
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However, it has been reported that the Guthrie family are embroiled in a row with the trust over promises made about their residence on the island.
They said the trust failed to entice more families to the island, and are reportedly threatening to sue the NTS for the £10,000 they say they spent relocating there from Motherwell.
Their children were the first to live on the island for three years, leading to the school to reopen in 2014.
The couple moved there with their children, Ryan, 14, Julie Ann, 12, Erin, 10, and Gordon, seven, after applying to a family recruitment advert.
Mr Guthrie told the Daily Record: ‘They [NTS] were starting to go back on what they said about bringing other families.
‘There’s no way we would have moved if we thought our children were going to be the only kids on the island.’
The family now live in Lesmahagow. The NTS have disputed the family’s claims.
Another couple who went to Canna to run its only guesthouse, have also returned to the mainland – Colin Irvine and his partner David Marr are now in Edinburgh.
