Off-Grid Voices - A Chat with Hannah Swierstra

Slow living and gardening experiments on a Scottish Island

Hi lovely reader 👋

Welcome to Off-Grid Voices, a series of written interviews with others who are out there living their best lives, living lives that are a little outside the norm, a little different. I’m hoping this series will inspire some of you who may be thinking about living a life off the grid, homesteading, travelling the world, doing #vanlife, or anything else that you may be considering. Hope you enjoy exploring these lifestyles with me. 😊

This week we’re talking with

Hannah Swierstra

who writes on her Substack Orkney Outpost. I’ve been reading Hannah’s substack for a long time. I love reading about her adventures living on an island and I can relate so much to her stories of trying to find a different way to live life. What I enjoy the most is her realness - Hannah just shares it like it is!

This is Hannah - Photo supplied by Hannah

Hi Hannah, let’s start with learning a bit more about you! Tell us a bit about yourself and your Substack.

I’m Hannah, a writer, gardener and renovator, currently living on the island of Hoy in Orkney. My Substack, Orkney Outpost, is a mix of slow living, house renovation chaos, gardening experiments, perimenopausal life and general musings on rural life, hopefully all with a dose of self-deprecating humour.

It’s a very personal publication, I write about my experiences of moving to a remote island, taking on a leaky old house, and my attempts to live a more sustainable life, in every way. Everything I do is imperfect and I like to share the ‘shitshow’, the reality of it all. It’s definitely not an Instagram life, although I am on Instagram of course!

Before island life, I lived in towns and small cities and worked in some really tedious jobs - I always felt a pull towards something quieter, slower, and more connected to the land. Now I’m here, figuring it out as I go and sharing the adventure here.

Tell us a bit more about the Orkney Islands, why it’s such a special place and why you love it so much?

The Scottish islands have always had a kind of magic for me. I moved to Edinburgh for university at 18, and as students, we’d sometimes trek off to explore the islands. There was something about them, rugged, wild and wonderfully underpopulated! It just spoke to me. The idea of island life lodged itself in my heart back then, but then life moved on and it seemed like an impossibility.

Fast forward 20+ years, we’d been house hunting for well over 18 months, losing out as house prices were on the up (thanks Covid) when my husband casually texted me a listing for a place in Shetland. It was gone within seconds, but that was it, the decision was made. We knew then that an island life was the right move. We narrowed it down to Orkney or Shetland for a bunch of practical reasons, and then an old stone cottage on the island of Hoy came onto the market. We jumped on it immediately. The first time we ever set foot in Orkney, let alone Hoy, was the day we completed on the cottage and picked up the keys.

Orkney is exhilarating. It’s beautiful and untamed. But what I love most about it is the space. The uninterrupted horizon. The feeling that the world just keeps going, with nothing to break the view except a few rugged little islands like ours.

Definitely some stunning views - Photo supplied by Hannah

So you’ve been living there for roughly two years now? Tell us a bit more about your journey towards this lifestyle. How did you decide to move there? What inspired you to seek out this way of living?

It all started with a TV show. The Good Life is a classic UK series about a suburban couple ditching the corporate world to go self-sufficient and it completely captivated me as a kid. I was about five when I decided that’s what I wanted. I even went to university to study agriculture (not that I remember much of it beyond the social life).

Over the years, that dream never really left. As I became more environmentally aware and more drawn to growing my own, pesticide free solutions and permaculture, the idea of living closer to the land felt less like a fantasy and more like an inevitability.

My husband is from Friesland in the Netherlands, an agricultural area, so moving to a rural area was always part of our long-term plan. The real turning point came when I quit my job at the end of 2019 to go freelance. He was already working remotely and as my business took off we realised we weren’t tied to a place anymore. We actually left the UK for a few weeks and went to New Zealand for a friend’s wedding, knowing that when we came back, we’d start looking to sell our house and move somewhere rural.

Then, of course, the pandemic hit. That delayed everything by about a year, but the plan never changed. And when we finally found the right place, we jumped on it.

Who wouldn’t fall in love with a place like this? - Photo supplied by Hannah

Let’s talk about all things “off-grid” - tell us a bit about your living situation. I always like to say there are “degrees of off-gridness”, so where would you situate yourself? I read you do a lot of gardening, are interested in permaculture, I think you have some chickens too? In fact, the very first post I read from you was this one (9 reasons I’ll never be a gardening influencer) and it made me instantly subscribe to you :-)

Ah, thank you, Sophie!

I’ve moved away from the idea of full off-grid, self-sufficient living, but I still want to bring in as much of that lifestyle as is practical. Having space to grow food and keep chickens was a must —though, sadly, no chickens yet. We were waiting to adopt ex-farm hens, but after a year of waiting and no birds making it to Orkney, we’ve accepted that we might have to buy some in. Not the easiest task on an island!

Permaculture is a huge part of how I think about land and sustainability. I’m currently doing an online Permaculture Design Course, which is helping me figure out how to apply the principles in a meaningful way. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll be designing systems for others. Now that would be a dream.

Then there’s the house itself, retrofitting a 200-year-old stone cottage is no mean feat. We’re exploring solar panels and battery storage, though insulation is our first battle. It’s not the warmest place, but we do get a lot of sun, especially in summer, where the days stretch past 16 hours and it never gets properly dark.

Doug the Crub - Photo supplied by Hannah

When you first moved to Orkney, what was your biggest learning? Or what was the thing you needed to learn straight away?

How hard it is to get anywhere!

On our last trip to the Netherlands, I swear we could have made it from London to New Zealand in the same time it took us to get from Orkney to Leeuwarden.

Anytime we travel now, we assume delays. We stock up on essentials, freeze what we can, and prepare for ferry cancellations due to high winds, not just because of logistics but in all honesty, we’d rather not spend 6–8 hours just to do a food shop.

What would be the biggest benefits you see to living life your way?

The inconvenience.

Not having everything at your fingertips forces you to understand what you actually need and what “urgent” really means. Urgent is getting the ferry to wait because someone’s just given birth and needs to get to the hospital. Urgent is not a next day Amazon Prime delivery.

Life is all about ups and downs, so tell me a bit more about the biggest challenges you’re experiencing? What is your biggest current challenge?

The house. Definitely the house.

We both procrastinate (although I am a master) and the sheer scale of what needs doing is daunting. We keep finding a million other things to do before tackling the big stuff. But it’s a good challenge, we’re learning a lot, and the community on Hoy has been incredible. Plenty of people here have done similar projects and are always willing to offer advice - the biggest challenge now is figuring out how to heat and power the cottage in a way that makes sense.

What would you recommend to other people who are thinking about making a big lifestyle change, maybe thinking about moving off the grid or moving more rurally ?

Just do it.

Originally, we planned to move to Cumbria or Northumberland, but we kept getting priced out. Eventually, we got so frustrated that we made a snap decision, and honestly, it was the best one we could have made.

If you feel stifled by the life you’re living, maybe it is time for a big leap. Just don’t expect it to be all sunshine and roses. This is the life I’ve always wanted, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Moving somewhere rural didn’t magically fix my overthinking, but the space here has given me so much.

What is your most favourite resource about this type of lifestyle?

Weirdly, my local Facebook group.

With only about 400 people on the island, the group is a goldmine of practical advice. Any question I have, or request for help, or supplies, I get a dozen responses! A mechanic, someone with a digger, sheep lick tubs for growing in, a sea swimming pal and I’ve started a book club,

There’s something really special about that level of community support.

This Is Sophie Today is a reader-supported publication and while all posts are free, I need your support to keep this going. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, consider picking up a paid subscription. A monthly subscription is 5 NZD or 2.8 USD and a yearly subscription is 45 NZD or 25 USD.

---