GOODNESS knows, we all want to escape sometimes.

If ever there was an ­example of breaking out and ­running screaming in the other ­direction, it was Thursday night. ­

Desperate for a little hope on the ­horizon after 14 years, “anyone but the Tories” was the order of the day. North of the Border, after 17 years in power, the SNP ­representation at Westminster ­suffered similarly.

The message was clear – the electorate wants a break from the ­grinding awfulness of recent ­politics. An escape. A little hope. Some light on the horizon.

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Time will tell whether a little hope is what we get on a national level. Beyond ­voting, there’s very little within our ­individual ­control.

Now, with the election thankfully fading into the distance, thoughts may be turning to a summer break. After all, for many of us, our annual escape from our own lives is anticipating a summer holiday.

What’s your poison? Maybe you are dreaming of a Scottish island holiday, where the Northern Lights dance on ­demand, and the seafood is ­mouth-wateringly fresh? A dream where the sun shines, and your footprints on the beach are as Instagrammable as the never-before-discovered coves you will explore on your wilderness adventure.

You imagine the locals waving ­cheerily, authentic fiddle music in the pub and the exhausted dog snoozing in front of a wood-burning stove in your architect-designed holiday house.

Equally, like me, you might be ­dreaming of escaping a Scottish island currently ­beset by rain and slow-moving vehicles bedecked with roof boxes.

A dream where you win the ferry ticket lottery and head off to a metropolis – somewhere where fuel prices don’t make you wince to quite the same extent, where you can grab a coffee at a drive-through, where you can be almost entirely anonymous and where every damp dog walk doesn’t result in a house full of sand.

You imagine ­shopping trips, a wee snooze at the cinema, a ­fancy hotel and a different takeaway ­every night.

Only one of those dream escapes ever reaches the glossy pages of weekend pullouts. One of them is never the centrepiece of a TV series. After all, relaxing on a beach in the Hebrides is a better sell than dribbling into pick-n-mix at Cineworld.

And so, as sure as a midge follows a damp summer evening, the idyllic island (and Highland) narrative swarms around the tourist market, driving an ever more frenzied outpouring of suggestions for the perfect escape.

Split between the holiday escape and the permanent escape, the options on ­offer are becoming ever more varied – and some might argue – more ­outlandish. What they all have in common is the ­desire to part you with your cash.

At the super-rich end of the spectrum, or as I recently heard them referred to, “high net-worth individuals”, £25,000 will get you a week stranded expensively in Taransay.

Taransay, located off the west coast of Harris, is Britain’s largest uninhabited ­island. Spanning approximately 3800 acres, it was inhabited until the 1970s, with the population peaking at around 140 in the late 18th century.

It gained modern fame as the setting for the BBC reality TV show Castaway 2000, where a group of volunteers lived on the island for a year, creating a self-sustaining community.

Castaway 2000 is the ­closest thing to the origin story for our most ­recent island escapism cliches.

The show brought international ­attention to Taransay, launched some careers and created essential viewing for many of us. It also showed just how hard it is to live in a small community, with plenty of tears, fireworks and ­departures – but that part of the story has been ­conveniently forgotten, along with local questions about just how castaway the castaways were…

The island was previously owned by the MacKay family, who put it up for sale for £2.2 million.

Adam and Cathra ­Kelliher purchased Taransay in 2011. The ­Kellihers, who also own the Borve Lodge Estate in Harris, bought Taransay with a vision of returning it to its natural state by reintroducing native trees and preserving its historical and ecological ­significance.

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The goal is to restore it to a ­pre-pastoral era”. Rewilding doesn’t come cheap but thankfully there are ­plenty of ways to boost the coffers if you are bold enough.

At £6900 for four nights, and minimum group size of four, you can book a ­survival experience in Taransay. It’s described as a “unique and exclusive experience ­tailor-made for those seeking a private, wild and remarkable safari-style escape – an opportunity to reset, reconnect and ­acquire valuable skills”.

You are tempted to: “Embrace the elements, challenge yourself and absorb Taransay’s pure, stunning and isolated environment…”

Borve Lodge recently won an award as one of Scotland’s Greatest Escapes for its holiday cottage disguised as an ­iron-age Broch. Fair play. They know what they are doing.

They have found a way to monetise the desire many have to not just escape, but to challenge ­themselves on a personal journey – and if the experience-hunters can afford it, there are worse ways to spend money.

At the other end of the cost spectrum, a new curated adventure experience reared its head in Scotland last week. For £20, you can become a member of CampWild.

The CampWild site allows users to search by location and “Wild Grade”, ­assessing factors like site difficulty and ­remoteness. An app will guide you along the way, giving you co-ordinates of ­camping areas and points of interest.

It includes a code of conduct – which is not a bad thing – and is designed to give those with little experience of the outdoors the confidence to try it out.

Exclusive camping spots include an ­ancient rainforest in Cornwall and a ­secluded waterfall site in the Yorkshire Dales. Landowners range from small ­regenerative farmers to large estates, with many investing the extra income into ­conservation efforts.

The platform, which originated in ­England where wild camping is largely restricted, is now expanding to Scotland, where the right to roam and camp freely is well established.

The first location in Scotland is ­Invergeldie, Perthshire. The 12,000-acre former sporting estate was bought by ­Oxygen Conservation last year. It’s now a classic rewilding setup, focused on ­peatland restoration, tree-planting, hill-farming, and hydro-power. When you book a trail in Invergeldie, it is ­exclusively yours for 48 hours. And this is where some might start twitching.

The trail booking concept means that you won’t meet another member of ­CampWild, but due to Scotland’s ­access laws, you might meet folk who explore in an app-less fashion.

The app is a ­clever way to make money, and giving ­people confidence to explore nature with ­guidance on how to behave is admirable. Like all these things, though, the question is where it ends.

(Image: PA)

Many dream of a future where all UK land is as accessible as Scotland’s, with widespread permission for wild camping. As a (small) landowner, I enjoy sharing my modest acreage – although I dream of a day when city escapees ­understand that wild camping does not include four wheels...

The far bigger challenge is the trajectory of large rewilding projects owned by companies who see nothing but pound signs through the greenery.

At what point will we see the right to roam laws being circumvented in the name of “conservation”? Butlins for the brokers where the experience is curated by a corporation’s concept of wild might sound like an episode of Black Mirror, but a world where large estates in Scotland are locked down and only accessible by an app, or indeed by £25k, isn’t so far fetched.