They say moving house is one of life's most stressful events. So spare a thought for Ruth Barratt and Dughall Macleod whose new home for their menagerie of animals and possessions is a tiny island with no roads.

The couple started ferrying their worldly goods from Perthshire to Easdale island, in Argyll, on the September 10 - and they are still not finished.

The couple's assorted parade of pets, including Toe Rag the cat, Cuca the dog, four ferrets, two Harris hawks, one Gos hawk and assorted quails have had to make the short ferry journey.

Mrs Barratt, 55, who has her own home sewing business, said: "I think it got to the point where the ferry boys thought, what is coming next?"

But the biggest problem was how to get her three metre wide, 5ft 7in high embroidery machine to Easdale.

The answer lay in transporting the monster machine by barge. The island then witnessed its first car for years

as the couple had to bring their Mitsubishi Pajero car across to help tow the machine to their new home, about half a mile from the pier.

Mrs Barratt said: "It took about three hours to get it to the garden. The house is up a couple of steps and we used jacks and lots of bodies to move it."

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