AVOWED lovers of Scotland, American author Sharma Krauskopf and her husband Dean spent eight years scouring the coastline, looking for a lighthouse keeper's home in which to live. (After automating their lighthouses, the Northern Lighthouse Board cannily sold off the adjacent accommodation, thus ensuring that it would be maintained, but not at the board's expense.) They eventually found one - Eshaness lighthouse - in Shetland. Composed of e-mails to their friends, The Last Lighthouse chronicles Sharma and Dean's search for and acquisition of their new home. Refreshingly free of the "Gee honey, it's Bonnie Scartland" tone that infests so many such books by excitable Americans, this is a readable and genuinely charming story of one couple's dream come true.
Shetland Times Friday 26th of January 2001
The Last Lighthouse, by Sharma Krauskopf. Published by Luath Press at £7.99
Review by Tom Angus
This is the story of an American couple's eight-year search for a lighthouse home, told through the medium of e-mails sent by the author, mainly to her friend Sue Frye (Susie) between 24th September 1991 and 26th September 1999.
The couple are Sharma and Dean Krauskopf, who have a farm in Parma, Michigan. We are told that 50-something Sharma is a writer and speaker on "All things Scottish" while Dean works for Michigan State University as an agriculture adviser.
Before going on to a seven-page introduction the reader is informed that most of the spelling is US English while signs of UK English and Scots may be also to be found. I did my first reading of this work straight through and found the word and article formation refreshing enough to lift the drooping eyelid.
"Dreams do come true," begins the introduction. Thus encouraged the Krauskopf's determined to buy themselves a Scottish lighthouse as a second home. The couple has always wanted to "become part of something extraordinary", and were "not so much running away from the US but towards Scotland".
The running is told in five parts; the search, getting ready, the first trip - May in Shetland, back in USA and the second trip - September in Shetland.
In the first part we read of a spiritual awakening in a most unlikely situation which succoured the couple during years of scouring Scotland for suitable second home, lighthouse.
Kismet, in the form of a chance remark, leads to the couple discovering the Eshaness light is for sale, and the Krauskopf's along with good friend Sue Frye making a two-day visit to Shetland to see The Last Lighthouse.
Before we entered the lighthouse accommodation door I knew this was what all the waiting had been for," we are told.
Eshaness is 4000 miles from Michigan and we read "Dean feels any lighthouse in the Shetlands would be difficult to reach from the USA". To his credit Dean did not bring this up when the Krauskopfs and Susie flew to Shetland on 12th January 1999, returning to Aberdeen the next day after "The Worst Ferry Ride in History." In the interim a bid is put in for the Eshaness light. "It was gorgeous."
The peculiarities of our conveyancing system were among the first of many surprises for the author and it was March before they heard their second bid had been accepted.
The second part, "getting ready" is just five pages long and describes the closing of the lighthouse purchase and the planning of a trip by the author to experience life on the clifftop. Mrs. Krauskopf is traveling alone as this is her husband's busiest time of year.
The third part begins with Mrs. Krauskopf flying in to Sumburgh on the evening of the 29th April for a fortnight's stay at the lighthouse after fog had prevented a landing earlier I the day.
"As we know flying is not an exact science?"
After buying furniture the following morning - "the owner of the store took me to his house for lunch" - arrival at the second home is by furniture truck.
Eshaness man Tom Williamson, "our trusty caretaker", awaited them. (By the way this book is dedicated to Susie Frye and Tom Williamson.) Tom's many described talents, not least of which is his mastery of Rayburn operating, are given high praise.
When it come s to establishing a garden "Eshaness is not a normal location" apart, that is, from marauding sheep. Bird life observations include: The lighthouse has become a brothel for sea gulls." What with having television and sending e-mails there is little feeling of isolation, while sea and whale watching leads to prevarication in revising a novel. The lighthouse dweller is much impressed by the fact that a feeder minibus and a fish van come right up to the lighthouse. On the other hand "It really cost more to live here."
The fourth part sees plans being made for a return trip in September. The Krauskopf's chasing of a dream has inspired singer Moira Kerr to write a song called Eshaness, while some of her students (she runs goal-getting and resiliency workshops) keen to see this island paradise have been fund-raising to buy passports.
Mrs. Krauskopf admits to "…. The emptiness I feel without our picturesque lighthouse home", and reconciles herself to having to live for the next 10 years with only short visits to Eshaness.
A few days before setting for Shetland again comes word that video producers wants to film the Americans at Eshaness. Uneventful flights make for a smooth beginning for part five "the second trip", which lasted from Friday 3rd to Sunday 26th September 1999. By this time Mrs. Krauskopf has written among the rest a guide-book to Scotland, Dore Holm, and is writing for a Scottish Internet magazine.
"Tears came to my eyes as we turned off the Hillswick road and started down the Eshaness road."
She is alone at this point prior to the arrival of her husband, Susie and friend. Hard-won isolation being intruded up on by visitors leads to the confession "I am anti-tourist." Husband Dean inspects the Radio Shetland studios with a view to broadcasting via " a hook-up with WJR back in Detroit". An airwave brainwave but " it is too bad our beautiful farm and the lighthouse aren't closer together.
This book leaves me with several impressions. There is an ingenuousness which can be either endearing, enviable or annoying. One is struck by the sheer impracticality of this particular two-home arrangement. This is however, a story about the steadfast chasing and deliriously happy realizing of a long-held dream. An enviable situation.
The Last Lighthouse
Sharma Krauskopf
Luath, £7.99
Getting stuck in a Hebridean Island ‘sheep jam’ for 15 minutes changed Krauskopf’s life. "During that short time Scotland became a part of me," recalls the American writer, webmaster and ex-midwest farmer’s wife, whose subsequent quest to buy a Scottish lighthouse -humorously recorded here - lasted eight years and wound up in Shetland.
That is all for this month,
Sharma
I love to hear from you so contact me by email at sharma@eshanesslighthouse.co.uk
You can find more articles in the archive under Island Miniatures/Lighthouse Letters.
If you are interested in a video with Eshaness Lighthouse in it you can a good one here.
You can find more articles in the archive under Lighthouse Beacons From Scotland.
Book Signing If you order from this web site I will sign my book for children, Moonbeam Cow, and for adults "Scotland - The Complete Guide and Road Atlas", a beautiful book for which I did the text.
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