Can you live in this Scottish island?

London, Nov 10: Wanted: two families to live on a remote Scottish island with no pub, no shop, no doctor and no need to lock your door.

The windswept Hebridean island of Canna, with a dwindling population of just 15 hardy souls, is looking for new blood and the response has been amazing.

The National Trust of Scotland, the charity that runs the bird sanctuary island with archaeological links back to Viking times, was bombarded with applicants from as far afield as Dubai, Japan and Australia after advertising for families.

Applications to rent two properties close yesterday, a final choice will be made next spring and, as Britain's loneliest schoolchild, nine-year-old Caroline MacKinnon cannot wait.

She thrives on one-to-one tuition as the only child in the island's primary school but wants someone to play with.

''The ideal would be to get a family in with young children.

Caroline is a very sociable child who will fit in with anybody,'' said her aunt Winnie MacKinnon, 43, who was born on the island.

Winnie, who runs the post office and holiday cottages on Canna, is astounded by the response.

''I am concerned people know what they are coming to. This is a life-changing decision,'' she told Reuters from Canna, which lies alongside the Hebridean islands of Eigg, Muck and Rum.

DOORS UNLOCKED, NO MAJOR ROADS

''No one locks their doors here. We don't live in each other's pockets but when push comes to shove, we all pull together,'' she said by telephone.

The Trust, given the island in 1981, is offering two four-bedroom houses for rent at up to 400 pounds a month, one ideal for a bed and breakfast business to welcome summer tourists, the other for a builder, gardener or maybe plumber.

''We are looking for someone committed and passionate. They need to muck in,'' said Trust spokesman John Hollingsworth.

''On a day-to-day basis there is no need to have money in your pocket here. All provisions are brought in by boat. There are no major roads, just tracks for 4x4's.'' But he wants to shatter any illusions: ''There is a risk people get carried away with the romantic idea. We will take the shortlisted ones over in January to get the real flavour.'' Many candidates say they long to escape the rat race.

In Canna, they will be doing just that after a team of exterminators rid the island of its rising rat population that was threatening fragile seabird colonies.

REUTERS