Bill Hendry, a retired Harley Street urologist, lives in a remote settlement 10 miles from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. His croft house is among the most westerly dwellings in Britain: beyond the churning grey foam there is only Iceland and Canada.

Hendry and his wife moved to Lewis seven years ago after selling their family home in Epsom, Surrey, and their London apartment in Canary Wharf. Suitcases stand in the hall from their recent Saga cruise. Dressed in a green all-weather suit, Hendry maintains the reassuring in-charge tone of the senior physician preparing for a particularly painful surgical procedure. “What’s your name?” he asks while scribbling notes about crofting for me on a piece of paper. “Very good,” he replies reflexively when I tell him – as if writing out a prescription.