The rural context has consequences for the ways that gender structures the lives of people throughout the life course, both materially and socially. Norms of masculinity remains strong in rural areas and there is less room for deviations than in urban areas. This is not least connected to the scarcity of meeting places, and above all to that of alternative spaces. Men in rural areas who have remained unmarried throughout their lives and live without a partner tend to live in the areas where they were born. The identity and ways of living of unmarried men is often tied to the places where they live, but it is also connected to notions of heterosexuality and couplehood. In this paper I will explore the ways that unmarried and childless older men talk about relationships and childlessness in relation to norms of masculinity and heterosexuality, notions of ageing, growing old and approaching death.