They’re nicknamed Wendy, Fanny and Blowy. The three huge turbines, each 330ft tall, stand on a great expanse of boggy moorland overshadowed by the bare mountains of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. They converse in sibilant voices as a fierce wind spins their enormous sails, but nobody hears them, save a lone crofter digging peat.

Some would consider the turbines a blot on this wild and desolate landscape, but not Angus MacMillan. He sees them as objects of beauty. ‘These three ladies will be our salvation. They are the key to our economic renaissance after centuries of decline,’ he declares.