Tom Leppard on Isle of Skye

[Mipi]

OK, The story doesn't have to do anything with kilts, but is relatated to Scotland. So here is the translation from our local newspaper. I don't know how much of it is true, so take it with some reserve, pelase. Oh, and sorry for not so nice translation.



The taming of the man (as written in newspaper DELO in Slovenia)




After 20 years of »Robinson's« living in isolated bay on Isle of Skye, Tom Leppard returned to civilization. From now on he'll live in town Broadford, couple of kilometres away from the bay where he used to live in the cottage built form rocks, with aluminium roof and the floor made of compressed mud. Roof being so low, that average tall man couldn't stand and with no windows at all. He slept on slab from styropore. Cooking was done on small gas burner. No electricity and no water.


He's 73 years old, born in London and grew up there with three brothers. With 15, he got the job in British army (Is that possible??, my comment) and soon he became a member of special forces. There he experienced the solitary life in remote locations and he somehow he liked this very much. "Most of all I liked the scout operations, when I had to paddle in my canoe on the river or sail on the sea", he said. "After retirement, I found out that living in the city is not for me, so I moved to Highlands, to enjoy the peace." He never felt he's lonely, although he didn9t have much contact with the people, which he even haven't wished. Once a week, he paddled in his canoe 5 km to nearest town to get supplies that he needed.


Due to lack of the money and due to the way he was living, he became a turist attraction. He even got tattoo on the most of his skin in the leopard pattern. With only 0.8% of non-tattooed skin (??? Hard to believe), he was the owner of record in Guiness book (up to recently) and earned quiet some money on photographing his body. He even appeared many times on TV. The tourists were visiting him to get photo with him.


Now he moved to Broadford, while wilderness became to hard for him (see his age). "I hardly managed to paddle in my canoe to get supplies", he explained his reasons to move back to civilization.

[Jock Scot]

Yes, I saw him being interviewed on our local TV news, just the other day, in his new house. How much of the stories of his past are true I could not say,but most certainly he lived the "hermit life" up here for many years.

[beloitpiper]

Years ago, Guinness World Records had their own TV show. I remember seeing him on it because of all of is tattoos, but I never knew the rest of his story. How fascinating!

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Hardly the sort of thing one encounters over claret in Leith.

[Jock Scot]

Hardly the sort of thing one encounters over claret in Leith.

Hardly!

[Big Mikey]

If you enjoyed that, check out the following link to learn about "The Great Omi", yet another Brit who gained some fame for his "skin illustrations."

http://www.missioncreep.com/mundie/g.../gallery22.htm