Ken Smith spent four decades living in a log cabin in the Scottish Highlands; a filmmaker’s patient visits eventually brought his secluded world to the screen

Ken Smith chose a life far removed from roads, electricity and the routines of modern society. For almost 40 years, he lived alone in a handmade log cabin beside Loch Treig in the Scottish Highlands, relying on fishing, foraging, growing vegetables and chopping his own firewood, as per a report by the BBC and BFI.

His secluded existence eventually caught the attention of filmmaker Lizzie MacKenzie, who first met him while working at a remote restaurant. Years of friendship came before the camera, allowing MacKenzie to gradually earn Ken’s trust and understand the man behind the unusual lifestyle.

That relationship became the foundation for the BBC Scotland documentary The Hermit of Treig, which followed Ken’s life, his connection with the wilderness and the challenges of remaining independent as he grew older.

How did Lizzie MacKenzie meet Ken?

MacKenzie grew up on a small island on the west coast of Scotland and developed an early attachment to open spaces and a life away from convention. Her route into documentary filmmaking was equally unconventional.

In 2017, after leaving a horse training job, she met award-winning documentary filmmaker Amy Hardie. Hardie was working on a feature-length film about horses and PTSD in ex-military personnel and brought MacKenzie onto the production as an intern.

MacKenzie worked her way from intern to production assistant and then assistant director over two years. She described the experience as a kind of DIY film school that gave her the skills and confidence to begin telling her own stories.

Her connection with Ken began before she ever started filming him.

At the time, MacKenzie was running a remote restaurant located 17 miles up a dirt track. Local deer stalkers were among her nearest neighbors, friends and regular customers. They often told stories about an older man living at the edge of the shooting estate in a log cabin he had built himself.

The cabin was a two-hour walk from the end of the dirt track. During one January visit, with snow covering the ground, MacKenzie went looking for Ken because she wanted to learn how to fish properly.

Fishing turned out to be the way into Ken’s world.

The two became friends, and MacKenzie was struck by his energy and curiosity. Ken was approaching his 70s, yet she found him deeply engaged with life and eager to explore the world around him.

That first connection stayed with her. Even after years had passed, she could not shake the idea of making a film about him.

Why did Ken choose such an isolated life?

Ken’s decision to live in the wilderness was rooted in an experience that changed the direction of his life.

Originally from Derbyshire, Ken began working at 15, building fire stations. When he was 26, he was attacked by a gang after a night out. He suffered a brain haemorrhage and remained unconscious for 23 days.

"They said I would never recover. They said I would never speak again," he says.

"They said I would never walk again but I did.

"That's when I decided I would never live on anyone's terms but my own," he says.

After recovering, Ken began travelling and became fascinated by wilderness. While in the Yukon, he wondered what would happen if he simply left the highway and walked into nowhere.

He did exactly that.

Ken eventually walked about 22,000 miles before returning home. During his absence, his parents died, although he did not learn of their deaths until he came back.

"It took a long while to hit me," he says. "I felt nothing."

Later, while walking the length of Britain, Ken reached Rannoch in the Scottish Highlands. He suddenly thought about his parents and began crying.

"I cried all the way while walking," he says.

He then began searching for the most isolated place in Britain. Following bays and hills where there were no houses, he eventually looked across Loch Treig and saw the woodland.

"I thought where is the most isolated place in Britain?" Ken tells the documentary.

"I went around and followed every bay and every Ben where there wasn't a house built.

"Hundreds and hundreds of miles of nothingness. I looked across the loch and saw this woodland."

He had found the place where he wanted to stay.

Ken stopped wandering and began building his own cabin. He first tested the design using small sticks before constructing the shelter that would become his home for decades.

What was life like inside Ken’s cabin?

Four decades after it was built, the cabin remained remarkably basic. There was a roaring log fire, but no electricity, gas or running water. There was also no mobile phone signal.

Ken had to cut firewood in the forest and carry it back to the cabin. He grew vegetables and foraged for berries, but fishing in Loch Treig was his main source of food.

"If you want to learn how to live an independent life what you have to do is learn how to fish," he says.

Ken described his existence simply.

"It's a nice life," says Ken. "Everybody wishes they could do it but nobody ever does."

The landscape around his cabin was equally isolated. It was a two-hour walk from the nearest road on the edge of Rannoch Moor.

"It's known as the lonely loch," he says. "There's no road here but they used to live here before they built the dam."

Looking down from the hillside, Ken pointed toward the ruins left behind by people who once lived there.

"All their ruins are down there. The score now is one and that's me."

MacKenzie spent several years getting to know Ken before she began seriously filming his life. That existing friendship became both a strength and an ethical challenge.

She initially wrestled with the documentary convention of maintaining distance from contributors. But as Ken became more frail and increasingly needed help, she decided that his wellbeing had to come first.

Ken remained her friend, and filming had to come second.

That experience changed the way MacKenzie thought about documentary filmmaking and led her to reconsider the ethics of her work throughout the project.

The dangers of Ken’s isolated lifestyle became especially clear in February 2019. Ten days after MacKenzie left the cabin, Ken suffered a stroke while outside in the snow.

He used a GPS personal locator beacon that he had received only days earlier to send an SOS. The alert reached a response centre in Houston, Texas, which notified the UK coastguard. Ken was airlifted to hospital in Fort William, where he spent seven weeks recovering.

Doctors encouraged him to return to civilisation and live somewhere with a flat and carers. Ken wanted something else. He wanted to return to his cabin.

His stroke left him with double vision and memory loss, meaning he eventually had to accept more assistance than before. The head stalker of the estate brought him food every couple of weeks, which Ken paid for from his pension.

"People these days have been very good to me," Ken says.

A year after his first rescue, another accident struck when Ken was injured after a pile of logs collapsed on him. He was airlifted again.

Yet he remained determined to stay where he had chosen to live.

"We weren't put on earth forever," Ken says.

"I'll stop here until my final days come, definitely."

"I have had lots of incidents but I seem to have survived them all.

"I am bound to go ill again sometime. Something will happen to me that will take me away one day as it does for everybody else.

"But I'm hoping I'll get to 102."

For MacKenzie, the hope was simpler: finish the documentary and watch it with Ken.

The Hermit of Treig ultimately brought viewers into a world that Ken had spent decades keeping apart from conventional life. MacKenzie’s long friendship with him allowed the film to focus on his own voice, his relationship with the land and the rewards and difficulties of self-sufficiency.

The Whickers supported the project through its fund for first-time documentary makers. The organisation described MacKenzie as one of its Whicker awardees.

FAQs

1. Where does Ken Smith live?
   He lives in a handmade log cabin beside Loch Treig in the Scottish Highlands.
2. Who made The Hermit of Treig?
   Filmmaker Lizzie MacKenzie spent years getting to know Ken before filming his life.