Fifteen miles from the nearest bakery

The nearest bakery is a thirty-mile round trip from Kilmore: fifteen miles there, fifteen miles back. For years the gap was bridged by the community shop: Armadale Stores brought fresh bread from the Bakehouse in Mallaig across the Sound of Sleat by ferry each week, until demand became too much and the deliveries stopped. "Supermarket bread is fine but limited," Lesley says, "and I thought we deserved better."

She had lived in France and especially missed rustic baguettes, so she began baking them herself. Then came the cakes. An honesty box was the easiest way to get fresh bakes to people, so they asked the township's permission to build one at its entrance on the main road, registered as food producers, and completed the food-hygiene course. "The rest is history."

"Absolutely not retirement as we envisaged it"

Hugh and Lesley are relatively new to crofting. They moved to Kilmore, in Sleat at the south end of Skye, in 2020, both fresh out of careers in technology and both nominally retired. The croft has had other ideas. They grow vegetables and salad leaves, they're planting orchards, hedges and trees, they've deer-fenced part of the land to protect the produce, and they've put up a polycrub to widen what the island weather lets them grow.

"Honestly, it's absolutely not retirement as we envisaged it, and it's probably the hardest we've ever worked," Lesley says. "But it keeps us active and learning, and we love it."

When honesty works in reverse

The box is also Raven Croft's roadside shop. Over the summer months, alongside the bread and cakes, the shelves carry bags of salad leaves, beetroot, kale, broccoli (whatever there's plenty of), all grown without pesticides or chemicals.

Hugh and Lesley donate a large share of the box's profits to a local cause each year: last year the Isle of Skye Mountain Rescue Team, this year Broadford Hospital's fund for a much-needed blood-analysis machine.

They had braced for the takings coming up short now and then; it happens to plenty of honesty boxes. What actually happened, more than once, was the reverse: visitors leaving more than the shelf price. "We don't know if it's someone keen to donate to the charitable cause, or just people without the right change feeling generous. But when it does happen it's always a nice surprise. It's heartwarming."

"We weren't prepared for the opposite to happen: extra cash left beyond the value of the goods in the box. It reinforces our faith in the basic honesty of people." — Lesley, Raven Croft

Focaccia, açma, and a moment on the BBC

Ask Lesley for her favourite thing she's stocked and she doesn't hesitate: the focaccia. "It's loaded with olives, the best olive oil, red onion, roasted tomatoes, fresh herbs from the croft, and garlic. I think people taste it and recognise it as something a bit different. It's so gratifying to watch it fly off the shelves."

The box has become a place to experiment, well beyond the baguettes. Alongside Scottish standards like butteries and girdle scones, the shelves have carried açma (Turkish buttery bread rolls), fougasse, Swedish cardamom buns, and more. "You name it, I'll try it." The ingredients get the same attention: free-range croft eggs, organic wherever possible, Belgian Callebaut chocolate, local fruit. "I want to showcase that Scottish produce is up there with the best, even in a tiny box in a remote part of Skye."

Another surprise came when a BBC researcher contacted Lesley online, asking to use photos and details of the box for a television news article. "I was astonished. Our little honesty box was on the BBC news, albeit fleetingly!"

More important than the brief television appearance has been the box's effect closer to home. "The main thing that's surprised us is how much it's helped us integrate into the local community. People stop us locally to say hello and to tell us how much they enjoy the baking. We're quite quiet and reserved people, so to be embraced like this by the local community has been so heartwarming."

Know before you go

A typical day at Raven Croft involves the self-build house (paint finally reached the walls a few weeks ago), the raised beds, the watering systems, and the composting bays. Two days a week, Lesley also bakes bread and cinnamon buns for Armadale Stores. "I seem always to be in wellies or a pinny."

One thing to know before you set out: the box is stocked once a week, usually on a Monday or Tuesday, and it often empties the same day. Bare shelves just mean it's been a good week; it fills again at the start of the next one.

On dark mornings, when it's an early start to proof the bread dough, Lesley thinks of the box as a small local service. "If it brings pleasure to folk, that brings me pleasure too."