Photo: PETER JOLLY
John and Kay Ure's home in a former lighthouse keeper's cottage at Cape Wrath on the most north-westerly tip of the UK mainland sits on the edge of 900ft-high cliffs and has been cut off by the winter weather for almost a month.
Mrs Ure left before the “big freeze” to buy a turkey and the trimmings in Inverness and until yesterday had been forced to live with friends in the village of Durness, 11 miles away.
Mr Ure spent Christmas and New Year on his own and celebrated his 58th birthday last Sunday with a tin of baked beans.
Yesterday, for the first time since mid-December, he managed to drive 11 miles to a small jetty and cross the Kyle of Durness by boat to collect his wife and the turkey.
The couple run the country's “most isolated tearoom” at the end of an ungritted army road and were forced to spend their first festive season apart in 35 years.
Mr Ure tried on several occasions to drive his flatbed lorry down from the highest vertical cliffs in mainland Britain, but got only half mile before the vehicle started slipping on ice.
During their separation he ran out of coal, his generator blew and he was reduced to a diet of beans and pasta. His six springer spaniels were his only company and he had to feed them on emergency army rations.
The couple, who plan to tell their story to a woman's magazine, were not available for comment yesterday, but Mr Ure revealed at the weekend that he hoped to be eating Christmas dinner last night.
He said that meeting up again would be “like a second honeymoon” and added that he was looking forward to collecting a bottle of whisky sent by a sympathetic distiller.
Kevin Crowe, of the Loch Croispol Bookshop in Durness said: “We saw them in a 4 x 4 together, we're glad their enjoying their Christmas dinner at last. It must be one of the longest waits for Christmas dinner on record.”
The couple moved from Glasgow to Durness several years ago before opening the lighthouse café last summer.
Cape Wrath from the sea in 2007  

A Scottish woman who set out before Christmas to purchase a turkey finally made it home on Monday, after being cut off by snow for a month. Kay Ure left the Lighthouse Keeper's cottage on Cape Wrath, at the very northwest tip of Great Britain, in December. She was heading to Inverness on a shopping trip.

However on her return journey heavy snow and ice prevented her husband, John, from travelling the last 11 miles to pick her up.  She was forced to wait a month in a friend's caravan, before the weather improved and the couple could finally be reunited.

They were separated not just for Christmas and New Year, but also for Mr Ure's 58th birthday. With no fresh supplies, he was reduced to celebrating with a tin of baked beans. He also ran out of coal, and had to feed the couple's six springer spaniels on emergency army rations.

"It's the first time we've been separated", said Mr Ure in December. "We've been snowed in here for three weeks before, so we are well used to it and it's quite nice to get a bit of peace and quiet."