Love in the Scottish Highlands
After I requested to shoot a portrait of a man wearing a kilt on the Isle of Skye, he shared he and his wife’s improbable love story.
I asked this couple for a photo simply because I was interested by the kilt the husband was wearing, and they were gracious enough to chat with us and share their story afterward. In 2010, both were going through divorces. He was living in northern England and she was living in Maine - they only happened to start chatting on Facebook because she was interested in buying a piece of memorabilia he owned that featured Eilean Donna Caste (second photo), a symbolic cornerstone of the movie ‘The Highlander,’ a film they both loved. He told her he was happy to send her the piece, but then realized how expensive it would be to ship from England to Maine. Regardless, they continued to bond over their shared love of the movie and their mutual interest in the history and geology of Scotland.
After messaging back and forth and continuing to gain interest in each other, they decided to begin making short phone calls. He said the first time he called internationally to Maine, he initially claimed they would only chat for an hour or less because of how expensive international minutes were - instead, they ended up talking for over 11 hours. Horrified at how expensive the call was, the budding couple decided to only make this a monthly tradition, but one thing led to another and they ended up on the phone again just 2 days later.
They continued their long distance relationship for a few years, and she eventually saved up and flew out for a 2-week visit for the first time in 2014. The next time she visited that December, she was traveling as his fiancée. In May of 2015, they were married at Eilean Donan Castle (second photo), the site that first connected them from thousands of miles away. The third photo features the couple’s car, with a scene from ‘The Highlander’ and Eilean Donnan Castle depicted on the cover.
Additional photos of Eilean Donan Castle and the Isle of Skye are included below.
