The Fair Isle Struggle With Loss Of Tourism | Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild | Channel 5

[@deborahhammond8576]

I stayed with Tommy on a birdwatching holiday probably about 13 years ago now. He is the best of hosts and a great chef. Fair Isle is an enchanting place, I thoroughly recommend both

[@elenaknekhtina4571]

Hello! How can i get in touch with Tommy? Could you please share his contact? I would like to come there to volunteer. Really like that place although i've never been there.

[@deborahhammond8576]

@@elenaknekhtina4571 sorry I do t have any contact details I was on an organised bird watching holiday from Shetland

[@elenaknekhtina4571]

@@geoffdundee Thank you so much!!!

[@geoffdundee]

@@elenaknekhtina4571 ......youre welcome - i done a quick search online.

[@veronicaroach3667]

I felt so sad at the goodbye- it's always hard to leave someone behind or be the one waving as your loved one goes away ! The price of loving & caring about someone tho ! Hope his son returns often or stays home on the island again - that life needs to be cherished & held on to. The big city has it's charms, but this place is beautiful ! Wishing the best for this lovely place !

[@ivanabratos2893]

4:58 When he hugs his dad, I rewou nd it and teared up -what happiness!

[@quantumblurrr]

Couple of weirdos. The highlands attracts those types

[@patriciamcdonaldfortier170]

What an Amazing place! Id stay in his guest house and enjoy the beauty of Shetland Islands. Hopefully tourism will pick up very soon and they can all prosper from guests . This place is a slice of Heaven

[@CatsandJP]

The world needs more Tommies the keep the environment safe, give hope to those who are struggling with Covid whether in their personal live or their businesses. I wish him all the best because it’s obvious Tommy is above all a survivor!

[@StaceySsch]

Beautiful , Tommy you are living in Paradise

[@theScottexan]

I need an update on Tommy. What a nice guy. Hope Henry is doing well, too.

[@ColinSlocombe]

I always love watching Ben fogle an amazing guy

[@sanshen]

I've never been there but really love to visit Shetlands. Searched about fair isle as it was where Anne Cleeves' Shetlands hero Jimmy Perez supposed to have been born! After watching the video googled Tommy's guesthouse. Nice place it seems. Hope all have worked well for him after this programme. Parhaps one day shall visit his place....

[@ronaldestrada7107]

Hope to visit this place in my lifetime. Such an amazing place.

[@mariansmith7694]

Tommy on Fair Isle is a very interesting character. Thanks Tommy...

[@aurevoiralex]

Is Tommy Canadian by any chance? I'd love to visit his gorgeous place someday. I've visited the Outer Hebrides some years ago and let me tell you... it just seeps into your soul, anchors down forever in your heart.

[@seanirishterrier6588]

If you watch new lives in the wild, if I remember Tommy was living in the USA with his wife &son & applied through a scheme to repopulate Fair Isle.

[@DanzEnglish]

I'm in Coventry right now and I wish everyone on this island is doing well. Seems a nice place to visit

[@StanVanGundy1]

What a lovely guy

[@KarenFuchsbichler]

I would move there in a heartbeat, and im in Australia.

[@VanessaJeffery-w3f]

Tommy,,,what a lovely man

[@dadt8009]

9:30 "I hope every one works out what they are going to do in the next few years." - I need that, thanks Tommy!

[@susancollado5290]

🇬🇧💕During this pandemic 😷 Tommy is so lucky that he has so much open space to roam & be free💕No concrete jungle to look at through his windows💕Many of those that rely on tourism have been caught out & sank💕Keep your chin up & smile that your alive that’s all one can do💕

[@fourtails1192]

A little slice of heaven on earth ... I could quite easily live there 😊 thoroughly enjoyed this...just wish it was longer 😊✌️

[@thewanderingwindycity06]

Any clue how we can learn more about Tommy and how we may be able to support? Thanks!

[@loricarter2394]

Going to Scotland is totally on my bucket list. My cousin has gone and she totally fell in love with it, and I know I will as well. It would be absolutely amazing to see where my ancestors came from. Such a beautiful place 😍❤️😍

[@chiasanzes9770]

I've been there three times by now and I love it too. Planning go for 300 km hike there in 2023.

[@alanbbrady8196]

Island living is tough. I lived on the Isle of Coll for 5 years and i eventually left because of child abuse that the authorities were too willing to ignore.

[@islanddweller3674]

Island living ( I live offshore Mayo Ireland)is what you make of it. It really is. There are abundant ways to tackle what you saw as I know from experience. But I am sure that your valiant attempts made you very unpopular as too many folk refuse to rock the boat.. Yes, been there on another island and left. Feel free to message me?

[@islanddweller3674]

PS I love island life and now I have learned the best ways to live it!

[@starrycrown]

Does anyone know if Tommie has merchandise or something to buy? I would buy something from him to help out.

[@sudhan558]

why video is so short, we would love to watch full episode.

[@monicanath4859]

This is Paradise!

[@angina50]

Aye till a storm comes in.

[@antjetautkus5506]

Thx Ben ....amazing ..❤ Tke care

[@mairehennessy5329]

We miss u on tv

[@telecasterbear]

Two years later I hope Tommy is doing well.

[@realjay247]

I follow him on Twitter and Instagram, he seems to be doing ok. I hope to visit one day.

[@judileblanc8040]

This Island is just amazing, what a wonderful place to live! And to paint! Any chance of an artists residency?

[@estherbauer8216]

I would go in a minute but I now have walking issues after multiple back surgeries. Everything else is willing and able.

[@micgooflander95]

I don't know how people can stand to live in such bleak places, where there are no trees and the weather is never warm (hottest temperature ever recorded on Fair Isle is just 20.2 degrees Celcius!). But it always does fascinate me to watch documentaries about these windswept, warmth-foresaken places and the people who live there.

[@veronicaroach3667]

But - it's the cool wind in your nostrils, and your hair blowing in the wind, and the recognition that you are living where life is raw & your comforts are hard won. At least they have 24/7 power and warm homes....I'd love to spend a while there & experience it. Too old to travel now but I can enjoy these videos of places other humans call home !

[@micgooflander95]

@@veronicaroach3667 Very poetic. I imagine that they would have to be getting something out of it, but if I was going to live in the wild, I'd at least want to live somewhere that gets a summer.

[@khaledxz4892]

جميلة جدا

[@daughterofpatriots3165]

Fairisle knitting workshops might help. ❤

[@marietteberndsen9587]

Maybe one day with my daughter Lot van Engeland......

[@islanddweller3674]

Yearning for a photo or painting of puffins; mostly abed now so to look at that... Any chance, Tommy, from one islander to another?

[@christschool]

Is Tommy an American?

[@barcabhoy7193]

He certainly sounds American.

[@326Alan]

@@barcabhoy7193 He‘s from Saratoga, NY, USA (hence sounding a bit Canadian!)

[@TheWizechatmgr]

@@barcabhoy7193 I know his sister, which is how I found this video. And indeed, upstate NY as the other poster had said.

[@flamestruck8541]

if those islands had trees and forest ,i would visit them. i can't visit a place that looks greens but no trees.

[@davecooper3238]

Too much wind and sea spray to trees to survive.

[@saltspringrailway3683]

what's a 1000km in English?

[@davecooper3238]

Around 621 miles.

[@saltspringrailway3683]

@@davecooper3238 Thank you

[@bvcnvnbcvn]

where can I buy a hat.

[@HadriansWallNZ]

Tourism all over the world has been hit hard, it’s an industry that will recover once borders open up. However, these small places need to diversify to survive and not put all their eggs in one basket.

[@islanddweller3674]

Such as? I mean REALLY!

[@davidlynch9049]

I'd visit this island before any major city. Beautiful and I bet the people are much more friendly.

[@chiasanzes9770]

Lets wish 2022-2023 will come better but unfortunately those arrogant and careless me-me only trolls spoil things from all of us.

[@drrd4127]

"They are closer to Norway than Edinburgh" so what?! Glasgow is closer to Belfast than Edinburgh. London is closer to Paris than Manchester. Dublin is closer to Cardiff than Galway.

[@grahamfleming8139]

By that statement, England should rejoin with Germans.

[@raymonddixon7603]

What a desolate island. Man's interference in nature. Will we ever learn. Not even fit for sheep now!!!

[@gaycha6589]

What an ill-informed comment. Man has been living on and off Fair Isle for millennia. Does need reforesting tho

[@easypeasy5641]

Sorry but this American wants to live and isolate himeelf in all this island culture but then moan went the outside tourists stop coming. In life nobody can have best of both worlds. Tourists are just valued as cash cows at the end of the day.

[@islanddweller3674]

What a nasty post. I live on a small Irish island and yes; we rely on visitors, for simple income, ie sharing the beauty, And in winter there is total peace, No it is not about total isolation. There is balance, And how you can write your bitter last sentence! Oh and yes we do have the best of two worlds as the seasons here do in nature.. Truly we do.

[@davidlynch9049]

So, can you guess what the biggest industry in the world that supports many millions of people? It's tourism, pinhead.

[@easypeasy5641]

Tourists are seen as cash cows when you've got kids to send to boarding school. He doesn't work but paints so has expectation that tourists will fund this lifestyle.

[@easypeasy5641]

@@islanddweller3674 tourist fund his lifestyle of painting and sending his kids to boarding school. He could always get a real job.

[@colleenbrown92]

@@easypeasy5641 wow you're mad because he lives the life he wants 🙄 because you picked a chappy job that you hate. Get off your soap box