About
The Highland Companion Project was set up to address two important issues:
- The increasing problem of isolation and loneliness among our seniors and elders in Inverness and its surrounding areas.
- The lack of affordable accommodation for those from the rural Highlands and Islands who wish to study in Inverness part time.
This project is very simple:
We match seniors who have a spare room and who would like some company and practical help around the house, with trustworthy, vetted, mature, part time students from the rural Highland area and Scottish islands.
The service is free to sign up to and use for both students and seniors and is based on the principle of mutual exchange, with no money, rent or bills to pay; no transactions expected or given.
See it as a hospitality exchange programme where a bed for a few nights a week is swapped for a bit of help around the house.
Project Boundary
This map roughly shows the geographical limits of the project. It's for guidance only. If you feel you're in a rural or island area not marked on the map, but could still benefit, you should apply.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Students:
Every aspect of your participation in the Highland Companion Project requires negotiation. While the project is orientated towards students who are studying part time in Inverness, and who would not therefore be looking for full time accommodation, there is no reason why you cannot negotiate to stay for more days per week if this works for your host.
Seniors:
You should be clear about the maximum amount of nights you’d want students to stay with you before meeting them for the first time. It is better to start with fewer and build up to longer stays once you feel comfortable.
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Students & Seniors:
No. The Highland Companion Project is a 100% informal hospitality exchange and trust network. There are no transactions of any kind, no contracts other than informal agreements made between yourselves.
While every effort will be made to support you and provide good matches, every participant agrees when they apply that they are entirely responsible for making sure they are safe and feel capable of ceasing their agreements should they need to. If you are not able to articulate your boundaries, this is not the project for you.
While we think that the Highland Companion Project is going to help people make meaningful connections and work towards solving some significant problems for folks, we can make no guarantees that the person you match with is suitable, or that the project will work out for you in any way. With this in mind, both parties accept and agree when they sign up that when one party wishes for the connection to end, the other party must honour this. This means that if you are the host and wish for your guest to leave, they must immediately leave. Equally, if you are the guest and you wish you leave, then do so.
The Highland Companion Project expects and assumes that issues between people will sometimes arise. If you need help with anyone causing you problems, then reach out to us using the contact form at the bottom of the page and we will do our best to help.
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Here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry on HospEx, which explains better than we ever could the history and ideas behind this kind of project.
Where the Highland Companion Project differs from typical online Hospitality Exchanges is that we do not offer public profiles, but run it as a simple matching service, putting hosts and guests in touch so they can meet, see if they click and negotiate their exchange. This keeps the project lightweight and allows us to run it without having to store people’s data online. Given the low density population of the rural Highlands and Islands region, we anticipate being able to handle a smaller cohort of applicants than you might find in a more built up area.
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The Highland Companion Project is a volunteer run, non profit organisation supported by Graeme Walker and his tiny design company Pink Rock.
The project was founded by artist Graeme Walker in 2026 to both address his own needs to find suitable accommodation and open up the concept to a wider cohort in an effort to resolve some long standing issues in the Highlands and Islands region related to isolation and access to education. As of July 2026, Graeme hosts the project on his website graeme.page, with a view to migrating it to its own platform once it has become more established.
The project is run on an entirely voluntary basis. Besides Graeme, there is a small team of volunteers who help keep it running, mostly drawn from people who are already participating. If you feel that this is something you could help with, for just a couple of hours a month, please contact us using the form at the bottom of this page.
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Students & Seniors:
Do not sign up to the Highland Companion Project with your regular email address. Use a free email service like gmail.com to create an email address especially for this project. You’ll have to check it now and again to see if we’ve reached out to you, or if you’re feeling savvy, you can set up email forwarding to send /receive emails from your new address into and from your regular inbox. There’s lots of instructions on how to do this, but it’s not necessary. If you really would like this, but can’t figure it out, reach out to us - we may be able to help.
Only reveal private information about yourself once you have established that you trust the other party - including your home address, emails, phone numbers and other private information.
Always tell someone you know and trust where you’re going when you meet with the other party for the first time. Or take someone with you. We vet everyone who applies to this project, but the responsibility is 100% yours to make sure you are safe.
The Highland Companion Project does not keep your private data online. We will store it locally until such a time that you request us to remove it from our archive. If this is something you’d like, just send us a message using the contact form at the bottom of this page.
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This project is for:
mature students who are over the age of 25.
seniors who are retired, or near retirement age.
If you are not within these age ranges, but feel the project could work for you, please write to us using the contact form at the bottom of this page.
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This might happen further down the line, but would take lots of time and money to implement. To date, the project has been made entirely for free and is entirely volunteer run - a key aspect of the project that HCP would like to retain for the future.
As the population in the Highlands is fairly low and we do not anticipate being inundated with applications, we decided that this approach would be the easiest, cheapest and safest way to make something workable.
Apply
How it works
- Write to us using one of the below forms.
- We will add you to our list and set about matching you, which we will do by email introduction.
- You can then make arrangements with the other party.
Seniors
Fill in this form if you’re a senior with a room to offer
Students
Fill in this form if you’re a practical, reliable, trustworthy student from the rural Highlands or Western Isles in need of a room for a couple of nights a week.
Terms & Conditions
Click here to expand our T&C's document.
All participants agree to abide by our T&C's when they apply.
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The Highland Companion Project (HCP) is a volunteer run, free to use matching service that connects Seniors with Students for the sole purpose of free exchange, hospitality, mutual support and companionship. It is not a dating site.
HCP is only available for (1.) those living in and around the Inverness area who have a room to offer in exchange for a day or two per week with help around the house or (2.) students living in rural mainland Scottish Highlands or Western Isles who are studying part time in Inverness and need somewhere to sleep for a few nights each week in exchange for some practical help. Applications from outwith these criteria will not be accepted.
HCP does not offer or promote carer services. We do not accept applications written by anyone other than the person who wishes to participate. If you are in need of real care, for example if you have significant mobility or health problems, fill in the form anyway - just be aware that we might not be able to help you (we’ll let you know either way).
HCP is a completely free service meaning that Seniors and Students engage in free exchange with zero monetary transaction taking place. If you are being asked for money, you should report it here.
HCP vets all participants before offering introductory emails. Submitting either of the above forms means that you accept this and all the above terms. We may contact you by email if we need more info. While we will do our best to make sure we only introduce you to good people, the reality of the world is that we cannot guarantee that a bad apple won’t slip through the net. Please make sure you are of sufficient mind and body to protect yourselves, and are fully cognisant of the potential consequences of meeting strangers and inviting them into your home, or entering into the home of a stranger. This goes for seniors and students. Always meet people in public first to make sure everything is ok. Tell someone what you’re doing. Stay safe.
HCP only offers introductions, after which we offer no further services or ongoing support (although we will do our best to try to help where we can). We will only send out emails inviting you to connect with someone we think you’ll match once the right person has joined. Otherwise you won’t hear from us. We will never spam you or give your information away to a third party.
This service is very lightweight and is likely not suitable for everyone. That being said, for those who are spirited and just a little courageous, we do not doubt the potential here for the betterment of everyone, for wonderful, lasting connections and the overall improvement of our communities and access to education.
