Elisa & Cailean

Travel information

We are currently

Description

*Updated May 2026: We have one Workaway arranged for the first half of June, in Italy, and are looking for the next one! Our plan is to spend three months in Europe, from 1st June, doing only Workaway.*

Hi! We are Elisa and Cailean and we are excited to explore new places and ways of life.
We have lived in Scotland our whole lives - in Glasgow and also the Scottish Isles - and so have a great passion for the natural world and the outdoors which we would love to share.

We met in Glasgow but each have experience living and working in varied and remote places. Cailean grew up on a small family farm on the Isle of Skye looking after sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks, as well as dogs and cats. He liked the peaceful but vast atmosphere of the Hebrides which makes you feel fully a part of the landscape yet also fosters a strong and caring sense of community and family amongst the people who live there. I left Skye at 19 to study Physics at the University of Glasgow, and lived in the city for 6 years before recently moving back to the Highlands to be a bit closer to family.

Eliza's previous Workaways (some on old accounts) include Portugal as a farmhand, but also building a firepit, cooking and cleaning, repairing fences and building a concrete dog run; Greece, helping to renovate a villa, so painting, plastering, rendering and gardening; Isle of Canna (Scotland), caring for cows, sheep, dogs, and cleaning and doing laundry for the island's campsite and shop; Italy, chopping wood (Eliza's favourite thing to do!), manually removing parts of a fallen house from the ground and taking them back uphill in a wheelbarrow to be rebuilt.

In Cailean's free time, he loves to read, play guitar, play piano, and cook (he is an excellent cook according to Eliza!). Elisa loves to write, draw, occasionally read tarot cards, and also play guitar.
Together we like to go on day trips, and have spent the last year exploring some of the smaller towns and communities of Scotland to enjoy the scenery and learn more about the history and stories of where we live.
We enjoy spending time outdoors doing anything from swimming and hiking, to long drives through the country, or sitting in our garden having little fires in our chiminea for friends and neighbours to join.
We share a keen love of music, spending a great deal of time playing guitar and singing together - anything from 70s pop to traditional folk songs to modern indie - which we'd always be happy to share.

We want to go on workaway together to see new places, but feel like we are staying with friends. Being with locals is such a beautiful way to explore the world, and make lifelong memories.

We are looking for workaway hosts who are happy for us to explore nearby places in our free time, and can understand that we both value time alone as socialising all the time can tire us both out. Apart from that, we are really excited to meet anyone :)

We are both very clean and neat people, who will take good care of your home, garden, our room, and everything else you give to us. We are very grateful, and we like to help extra - doing things like washing dishes, empty the rubbish bins, feed animals.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope to meet you soon :)

Interests

Movies & TV

History

Books

Cooking & food

Animals

Art & design

Astronomy

Beach

Camping

Charity work

Culture

DIY & crafts

Drawing & painting

Farming

Gardening

Hiking

Hitchhiking

Mountain

Languages

Music

Outdoor activities

Nature

Pets

Plant care

Sailing / Boating

Sustainability

Writing

Yoga / Wellness

Vegetarian or vegan

Languages spoken

English: Fluent
Gaelic (Scottish): Intermediate
Spanish: Beginner
Italian: Beginner

Skills and knowledge we'd like to share or learn

We're interested in:  

Art Projects

Languages

Eco Projects

Life at a Farmstay

House & pet sitting

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Some knowledge of:  

Charity Work

Gardening

DIY and building projects

Animal Care

Helping around the house

Hospitality/Tourism

General Maintenance

Helping with Computers/ Internet

Babysitting and creative play

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Able to teach about:  

Being an elderly companion

Teaching

Creating/ Cooking family meals

More details about your skills

Elisa's skills are from childcare, care of disabled people and elderly care (she studied teaching for a year, and worked in a care home), to tidying and organising a house, moving heavy things like furniture (from working in removals), mending clothes, some DIY and repairing around the house, and gardening - big and small projects, from weeding and pruning to installing polytunnel irrigation systems and planting vegetable gardens. She has painted murals and built firepits on previous workaways, and would love to do those again! She can follow your instructions and ideas. She can also happily think of creative solutions to problems and have fun delivering them. She loves to look after animals, her favourites are sheep, cows and dogs.

Cailean grew up with lots of animals and has good experience taking care of them; keeping sheep, chickens and pigs that were loved and taken care of like pets, along with dogs and cats. We also had a large garden where we kept apple and pear trees, wild flowers, and a polytunnel we built ourselves with herbs and small plants, so I'd be more than happy to help out with any gardening tasks, including building planters and flower beds.
I love to cook and try out new recipes, and to share my food with others, especially given the chance to use home grown or local ingredients.
I've participated in archaeological digs in Scotland where we spent days at a time digging up patches of ground, digging and bagging up soil for analysis, carefully sorting through the stones and objects underneath, and replacing the turf afterwards to ensure no damage to the environment, all of which is great experience for a wide variety of outdoor and garden tasks you may want done.
I'm a very organised and tidy person with an interest in decorating and keeping places looking nice: I can paint, build furniture and would be happy to tackle any other jobs needing done around the house. I've also cleaned holiday homes professionally and can do so to a very high standard.
On Skye where I grew up there is lots of interest in making things from basic materials and with your own hands, so I have in the past made benches and tables, gardening equipment, fences and walls and firepits from sustainable and easily found materials like driftwood and stone.
I'm a fairly experienced guitar player with about 15 years experience, and I've taught around 5 people from absolute beginner how to play chords and some simple songs.
I have quite a big family with 10 nieces and nephews, all of whom I've spent time taking care of from when they were babies to teenagers, so I'd be comfortable with childcare and arranging activities.

Age

27 & 26

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies
  no

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  Special dietary requirements
  Elisa is vegetarian