A tiny island off the North West Coast of Scotland, Tanera Mor, has reportedly hit the open listing market with an asking price of about $3.9 million. The island is the only inhabited piece of land in the Summer Isles archipelago of Wester Ross.
The island is a floating stretch of 800 acres. It is a flourishing tourist destination and has a total of nine residential properties, a café, a post office and three jetties, an anchorage and two piers. The island is famous for issuing stamps of its own, reports The Scotsman. It was used as a stop-over by ships that embarked on long northward sea journeys.
The islands are owned and managed by Lizzie and Richard Williams who purchased it from Mrs. Williams' family, the Wilders. They took over the islands from the Wilders in 1996, after the couple sold its dairy farm in Wiltshire. They have been residing and looking after the islands since then.
Before listing the island on the open market, the couple had approached the local Coigach community of the island to see if f anybody was interested in buying the isle. However, the community declined as they were already handling a few micro renewable-energy projects and had just inked the purchase deed of the former Achiltibuie Smokehouse. However, the community appreciated their approach and said they would completely co-operate with the new owners of the island, reports BBC News.
Commenting on the listing, Lizzie said:
"After many happy years of calling Tanera home, it is time for someone else to have the privilege of looking after this amazing place. We greatly appreciate the effort made by the local Coigach community to consider the opportunity of taking on Tanera and we fully understand their reasons for deciding not to. We hope that whoever owns the island in the future will enjoy the same warm and co-operative relationship with the community that we have for the past 17 years."
The listing of the island lies with CKD Galbraith Real estate. Agents of the firm have called the listing a rare opportunity to own an island with such budding tourist enterprise and natural beauty. They hope to garner a lot of bids for the island.
"With on-going support and commitment from the local Coigach community, Tanera Mr offers a truly fantastic prospect for interested parties who will very much have the island's heritage and sustainability at heart as well as a fantastic life style," John Bound, an agent at CKD said to News.com.au.
