A new documentary charting the reclusive life of The Hermit of Treig is set to air on BBC Scotland. For almost 40 years the hermit has lived “off-grid” in a hand-made log cabin on the banks of a loch in the Highlands.
Ken Smith lives a two-hour walk away from the nearest road on the edge of Rannoch Moor, by Loch Treig.
The 74-year-old has no electricity or running water in his log cabin where he lives alone in the remote area of Lochaber.
Known locally as The Hermit, he survives by growing his own vegetables, foraging for berries, and fishing in the loch.
How did Ken Smith become the The Hermit of Treig?
Mr Smith, originally from Derbyshire, chose his isolated and reclusive lifestyle to explore his fascination with wilderness and as a way to deal with his grief.
At the age of 26, Mr Smith was beaten up by a gang of thugs after a night out. He suffered a brain haemorrhage and lost consciousness for 23 days.
After doctors said he would never recover or walk again, he proved them wrong and decided to travel. He walked around 22,000 miles before returning home.
However, while he was away his parents died and he did not find out until he came home. He took himself away once more before finally deciding to build his cabin in Rannoch.
He has allowed filmmaker Lizzie MacKenzie to document his solitary lifestyle at the ‘lonely loch’. Over the last two years she has filmed him for the BBC documentary The Hermit of Treig.
‘I’ll stop here until my final days come’
Despite health scares in recent years, Mr Smith has no plans to give up his off-grid lifestyle.
In 2019, he used a GPS personal locator beacon to trigger an SOS. The signal was picked up by a response centre in Texas who then notified the UK coastguard.
Mr Smith, who was suffering from a stroke, was then airlifted to Belford Hospital in Fort William.
A year later, he was again hospitalised after a log pile collapsed on him. He was rescued after activating his personal emergency beacon again and was suffering from minor head and chest injuries.
Mr Smith is not worried about his future.
He told BBC Scotland: “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.”
The Hermit of Treig will be shown on BBC Scotland at 10pm on Tuesday November 9. It will later be available on BBC iplayer.