I live off-grid in a tiny cabin that requires a canoe, but I’m also a viral star
HE’S a top baker whose delicious recipes have earned him TV appearances, four cookbooks and an invitation to the White House.
Coinneach Macleod, affectionately known as the Hebridean Baker, also has more than 400,000 followers on social media and has designed football strips for Celtic.
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But the downtime for the talented 50-year-old, his partner Peter MacQueen, 47, and their adorable Westie Flòraidh couldn’t be more different.
The couple spends five months a year completely off-grid in a small hut that can only be reached by canoe.
They have no electricity or running water and enjoy foraging for food.
Coinneach, from the Outer Hebrides, told Fabulous: “So basically we keep two canoes under the bridge. We’re a bit like trolls, keeping our stuff under the bridge.
“And then it’s about 20 minutes of canoeing, a beautiful paddle to our cabin. And it’s a lifestyle that me and Peter absolutely love.
“There’s something about the Northern Hemisphere. You have the cabin life in Canada, you have the cabin life in Norway. So it’s very natural that people at our latitude have this kind of outdoor life.
‘And in Scotland it’s been a bit lost. But we call the lifestyle ‘hutting’, having a hut.
“Hutting means having a place that is for your family. This can never be rented out or put on Airbnb, it’s just you and your family.
“It can only be thirty square meters or smaller. And it can’t be connected to electricity or running water, things like that.”
He added: “But you can still make it luxurious. We have a beautiful big stove that keeps us warm, and I’ll make my pancakes on it tomorrow morning.
“We have an orchard with fruit trees around us and our vegetable plot.”
And while the plan is to house us occasionally, the baker admits he would like to live there full-time if he could.
“It’s just such a joyful way to live,” he sighs happily.
“The only thing is whether you want to watch Strictly or RuPaul’s Drag Race, or whether you think I really fancy a Double Decker. That’s the challenge. It’s a long road.
‘But we do it and it’s great.
“And I can share a piece of my culture through baking without ever leaving my hut. It takes us away from the hectic life of the city and as far away from the modern world as possible.
“It is important to keep the traditional recipes alive.”
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But baking is for sharing, you don’t just make delicious treats for yourself.
So it’s not surprising that Coinneach’s Scottish recipes and slow living tips have racked up tens of millions of views on TikTok and Instagram.
And it’s the humble clootie dumpling, a traditional steamed Scottish pudding, that started it all almost five years ago.
During lockdown, Coinneach started posting videos of recipes he learned from his beloved Aunt Bellag, who at the age of 96 still bakes every day.
He became a viral sensation almost overnight after a reporter from the glossy magazine Elle noticed his clootie dumpling video and praised his accent for sounding “like I imagine a piece of shortbread would talk if it comes out of the oven.”
Coinneach, Scotland’s best-selling cookbook author for three years in a row, said: “To go from zero to four months later when I was offered a book deal. I thought, ‘Gosh, can I do this?’
“It happened as quickly as you could get, if you know what I mean, in a beautiful way that people just saw something in what I was doing, be it through the recipes, the stories, the lifestyle and the culture that they saw. resonate.
“I’m just really happy that I get to be in people’s kitchens.”
However, he doesn’t just interact with fans via their phones and tablets, happily donning his kilt to travel the world and share his passion for Scotland in person.
He said: “I’ve just returned from my seventh sold-out US tour, which I still can’t believe.
“The week before I left, I received a letter from the President of the United States inviting me to the White House. And I was so honored to go.
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“We call our traditional stone houses with thatched roofs on the island black houses. And I thought to myself, this is how my mom and dad grew up, in black homes.
“So I literally went from the Black House to the White House, and what an experience it was to get there. But it was such an honor.
“Sometimes I feel like Tom Jones, like I’m literally walking into this [book tour] Arenas and there’s 300 people screaming, so excited to see me and I’m thinking, oh my god, how did my life turn out like this? But I love it.”
The celebrity baker, a regular on This Morning, will start filming for his own TV show next year and has two more US book tours booked, so 2025 is set to be busier than ever.
But Coinneach joked: “I’d like a day on the couch too. That is also in the agenda.
‘There’s something about people from the Hebrides. We like to work hard. Although I don’t know if I would ever call this work.
“It’s a total pleasure to do what I do.”
He added: “There’s something about having that nice contrast, knowing that I can have these really fun adventures, but when I go home, you know, with Peter, with Flòraidh, everything calms down a little bit again.
“I have been fortunate to meet so many wonderful, wonderful people on this journey and I look forward to continuing.”
Coinneach’s incredible story has been showcased as part of TikTok’s ‘It Starts With Us’ campaign, which celebrates the successes of inspiring creators who get their start on TikTok and are a catalyst for real-world impact beyond the platform.
He said: “I loved being part of it. To be chosen as one of three people on TikTok in the UK and for them to think my storyline resonated was amazing.”
- Coinneach’s new book – Hebridean Baker, the Scottish Cookbook – is on sale now.
