Lotte’s life changing love with remote Scottish farmer

How Lotte found life-changing love, 400 miles away, with remote Scottish farmer Tim

When Lotte ‘found’ remote Inner Hebridean hill sheep farmer Tim on Muddy Matches back in September 2016, it was to be the start of a life changing muddy adventure for the country minded couple; and one that would eventually result in a little family.

“I am forever grateful to Muddy Matches” says Lotte, from a socially safe distance in the couple’s new farmhouse in Dumfries and Galloway.

“I’d looked briefly at other dating websites that didn’t feel right for me as I was brought up in the country and lived in the hills where I could enjoy walking and being outdoors. But, on Muddy Matches, I found my soon-to-be husband, the father of our beautiful, amazing two-year-old daughter.”

Lotte tells us that Tim, who has been working with sheep and cattle for over 30 years, was recently widowed and ‘didn’t want to actively look’ – but she then ‘found him’.

“I tell Tim he made it easy for me to find him. His main profile photo showed a lovely smile and an open face. I couldn’t stop thinking of him even though he lived way too far away from me. I read his profile and he wrote so honestly and openly about himself.”

Two weeks after meeting online, and following a busy fortnight of sheep sales for Tim, the pair met up for the first time in real life at Eden Valley near Penrith. “I understood straight away that we may well have a future together, so as we met later in life, we quickly decided we both needed to talk about our dreams for the future.”

That’s when a series of life changing events started with Lotte upping sticks from her Manchester base to be nearer to Tim who, at the time of muddy matching, was 400 miles away on the remote Inner Hebrides, an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland.

“I moved up to a remote croft near Mull in North Argyll and never looked back.” Lotte says with a smile. “It was a new beginning and I love how my life has changed with Tim.”

“We had started IVF a year into being together as we both wanted a family, so I moved to North Argyll at 6 months pregnant!

“Now we have a gorgeous two-year-old daughter and are both so happy. We’ve done most farm jobs at our croft with one of us carrying our baby. We’d feed the sheep, move them, walk the land, visit the lambs, get the dogs out for some runs. We’d put our daughter in our sling carrier and move sheep along the single-track road to fresh grass.

“She calls the dogs and the sheep in now, copying us!”

There was still more to come when Lotte took the plunge to ask Tim to marry her – in the muddiest of situations. “I proposed in the haybarn with a puppy jumping on his head and our daughter sleeping like a baby in my arms.” Lotte recalls.

The pair were scheduled to tie the knot this summer, but the global pandemic put paid to any celebrations, postponing the wedding. So, the future Mr and Mrs instead, changed tact and went looking for the next piece of their muddy adventure whilst during lockdown.

“Our lives were already extremely remote, so the lockdown meant little difference apart from Granny coming to stay for 3 months. Driving an hour and a half including a ferry to the nearest supermarket with no takeaways or grocery deliveries is just what we’ve been used to.

“So, we ended up putting our energy into finding a farm to move to closer to our families. There’ll be more sheep and we’ll be married next year here at the farm we hope!” Lotte adds.

The good news; after finding each other, they found ‘it’ – the perfect family farm.

“We worked really well as a team to get to this point together, selling our croft and buying a farm during a pandemic – with a toddler! As a couple we’d like to make this our home and make new friends in our new local area too.”

Muddy Matches wish Lotte and Tim all the best for the future as a family – and we can’t wait to hear more about their farm-based wedding next year.