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For this 14-year-old, and dozens like him, the Scottish island of Bute is becoming a cherished place of healing and recovery after the horrors of the Syrian conflict.

In 2015 a Scottish island accessible only by ferry became home to 10 Syrian families: made possible by the existence of surplus housing and local school places.

From Syria to Scotland, tells the story a handful of some of Bute's new islanders including Ali who was just six when the Syrian conflict started.

"It was just a few arguments that the public had with each other but then they took it way, way too serious and too far and started killing each other and shooting each other... We realised they wanted to start a war and now it's a big thing ... they destroyed the whole country", says Ali.

"They destroyed my school and my house ... if you don't run fast you're gone. We took nothing not even shoes."

Ali is remarkably optimistic considering what he has been through. His dad died in the war in Aleppo and he has had to witness things very few British 14-year-olds have seen. He and his mum fled to Lebanon where they lived for four years before moving to Scotland.

Ali's mum prepared him for the change:

"She said, 'we're going to a country that respects you, respects everything about you, how you look, how you speak and everything.' Then I actually started being happy. I started feeling happy that day and I just felt like the moment of being a child, it was amazing."

Despite missing four years of school and suffering violence at the hands of his teachers in Lebanon, Ali still has a positive outlook on his education and his future:

"I want to do aerospace engineering"

Making it in Bute

Ali is not the only islander grateful for this Scottish island's welcome. There are 50 Syrian children living on the island now including the two kids of local barber, Mounzer. He now runs the Orient Salon in Rothesay, named after the busy barber shop he ran in his native Damascus.

Every day he phones his parents in Lebanon whom he hasn't seen for three years and for whom, as Syrians, living conditions are very tough. These phone-calls are a harsh reminder of what he has escaped. Mounzer didn't get out unscathed however. He was captured by the Syrian regime and imprisoned for 6 months where he suffered extreme deprivation.

"You don't see any light, always dark. No food. Some people lose their mind. And when you lost your mind in the jail after three or four days, you will die."

Mounzer still has nightmares almost every night but he has also made a lot of new friends and says he has "big love" for the island.

Although Mounzer was able to continue his line of work in Scotland, right next door to Mounzer's salon is the restaurant and takeaway bringing a taste of Syria to Bute. It’s run by Rahaf, a former teacher, and her husband Fadel, a former engineer.

Mohamad and his wife and three children are the most recent Syrian family to arrive on the island. He is a tourism executive but has found an opportunity at the local blacksmiths. He’s creating some decorative metalwork for a historic building - a little piece of Syria in Scotland!