Paul and Linda McCartney retreat in Scotland

On October 22, 1969, Paul McCartney, his wife Linda, their two daughters — six-year-old Heather and baby Mary — and their sheepdog Martha set off for Paul’s farm in Scotland. After flying to Glasgow and continuing by Land Rover, they arrived at High Park Farm, where they would stay until mid-December.

While in Scotland, Paul reluctantly agreed to a few interviews — including with the BBC, Sunday People, and Life magazine — to publicly dispel the rumours that he had died.

After their retreat in Scotland, the family returned to London then travelled to the Caribbean island of Antigua for a short holiday, returning to London just before Christmas where Paul would start recording his first solo album.

We decided the only thing to do was to boycott Apple, just get out of there. The meetings were just such a headache so we just came to Scotland. We took the kids, we took the dog, took everything we had, put a guitar on the top and took a potty for the baby and that was it.

Paul McCartney – From “And in the End: The Last Days of the Beatles” by Ken McNab, 2020

I was going through a hard period. I exhibited all the classic symptoms of the unemployed, the redundant man. First, you don’t shave, and it’s not to grow a groovy beard, it’s because you cannot be fucking bothered. Anger, deep deep anger sets in, with everything, with yourself number one, and with everything in the world number two. And justifiably so because I was being screwed by my mates. So I didn’t shave for quite a while. I didn’t get up. Mornings weren’t for getting up. I might get up and stay on the bed a bit and not know where to go, and get back into bed. Then if I did get up, I’d have a drink. Straight out of bed. I’ve never been like that.

There are lots of people who’ve been through worse things than that, but for me this was bad news because I’d always been the kind of guy who could really pull himself together and think, “Oh, fuck it,” but at that time I felt I’d outlived my usefulness. This was the overall feeling: that it was good while I was in the Beatles, I was useful and I could play bass for their songs, I could write songs for them to sing and for me to sing, and we could make records of them. But the minute I wasn’t with the Beatles anymore it became really very difficult.

Paul McCartney  – From “Many Years From Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

It was good while I was in the Beatles, I was useful, and I could play bass for their songs, I could write songs for them to sing and for me to sing, and we could make records of them. But the minute I wasn’t with the Beatles anymore, it became really very difficult.

Paul McCartney – From “Solid State: The Story of “Abbey Road” and the End of the Beatles” by Kenneth Womack, 2019

For the first time in my life, I was on the scrap heap, in my own eyes. An unemployed worker might have said, “Hey, you still have the money. That’s not as bad as we have it.” But to me, it didn’t have anything to do with money. It was just the feeling, the terrible disappointment of not being of any use to anyone anymore. It was a barreling, empty feeling that just rolled across my soul, and it was… I’d never experienced it before. Drugs had shown me little bits here and there – they had rolled across the carpet once or twice, but I had been able to get them out of my mind. In this case, the end of the Beatles, I really was done in for the first time in my life. Until then, I really was a kind of cocky sod. It was the first time I’d had a major blow to my confidence. When my mother died, I don’t think my confidence suffered. It had been a terrible blow, but I didn’t feel it was my fault. It was bad on Linda. She had to deal with this guy who didn’t particularly want to get out of bed and, if he did, wanted to go back to bed pretty soon after. He wanted to drink earlier and earlier each day and didn’t really see the point in shaving, because where was he going? And I was generally pretty morbid. […] There was no danger of suicide or anything; it wasn’t that bad… Let’s say I wouldn’t have liked to live with me. So I don’t know how Linda stuck it out.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Playboy magazine, December 1984

I was very scared. I didn’t want to give up, but it was a mess, it was unreal, and I had to handle this all by myself. There was no choice. I had to try. We had two children, we’d just been married a year, and my husband didn’t want to get out of bed. He was drinking too much. He would tell me he felt useless. I knew he was torturing himself, blaming himself for the break-up, and I was sure that he could get beyond it, but if he didn’t believe in himself, what could I do? I could only try, that’s all I could do. Let me tell you, my hands were full.

Linda McCartney – From “Linda McCartney – A portrait” by Danny Fields, 2000

I remember Paul saying, ‘Help me take some of this weight off my back,’ and I said, ‘Weight? what weight? You guys are the princes of the world. You’re the Beatles.’ But in truth Paul was not in great shape; he was drinking a lot, playing a lot and, while surrounded by women and fans, not very happy. We all thought, oh, the Beatles and flower power – but those guys had every parasite and vulture on their backs. I still think I could have eased the pain somewhat more than I did…

Linda McCartney – Interview with McCall’s, August 1984

Scotland was like nothing I’d ever lived in. It was the most beautiful land you have ever seen; it was way at the end of nowhere. To me it was the first feeling I’d ever had of civilization dropped away. I felt like it was in another era. It was so beautiful up there, clean, so different from all the hotels and limousines and the music business, so it was quite a relief, but it was very derelict.

Linda McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

While in Scotland, Paul McCartney continued writing songs. He penned two songs – “The Lovely Linda” and “That Would Be Something” – which would be released on his debut solo album, “McCartney“, released in April 1970.

His wife Linda documented their life in Scotland through her photography, some of her photographs would be used on the packaging of the “McCartney“ album.

They also filmed some sequences of the two of them for the promo video of “Something,” the new Beatles single.

BEATLE LOOKS ALIVE

Beatle Paul McCartney (right) walked from a plane after landing at the Glasgow (Scotland) airport. There had been rumors of his death for months. At left is McCartney’s wife, Linda, carrying their baby daughter, Mary. The photo was taken Wednesday Night

Unknown source – From Jesse Tedesci on Twitter

Going further

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.