Summer Isle sale sparks worldwide interest
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A ROSS-SHIRE island is attracting "global" interest from potential buyers, according to the selling agents.
Tanera Mòr, the largest and only inhabited island in the Summer Isles off Achiltibuie in Wester Ross, was put on the market in early May with a guide price of £2.5 million.
The 800-acre island is inhabited by just two people and is around a mile offshore.
John Bound, of the Inverness office of agents CKD Galbraith, told the North Star: "There’s been a huge amount of press coverage about the sale of Tanera Mòr and that has helped attract global interest. We have had enquiries from all over the world and it’s still early days in the marketing campaign.
"Enquiries have come from China, the USA and the Falkland Islands as well as the UK. There have also been a number of viewings of the island and we are very hopeful that we will find a buyer who is like-minded to the Wilder family to carry on what they have done."
The Wilder family, who have owned Tanera for the past 16 years, had offered the island to the local community on the nearby mainland at Achiltibuie to see if they would be interested in buying it before it went on the open market.
However, the community reluctantly turned down the offer because local people were busy pursuing other community-led projects.
The island, which had a population of around 120 residents in the late 1880s, is occupied by Mr and Mrs Wilder’s daughter, Lizzie, and her husband Richard Williams.
The island has no roads but it has a pier and sheltered anchorage, nine houses, a fish farm, a sailing school, a cafe and a post office which has operated its own post and printed its own stamps since 1970.
CKD Galbraith also sold the island of Taransay, off Harris in the Western Isles, the setting for the BBC series Castaway which made Ben Fogle famous.
It sold just weeks after being put on the market, dashing plans for a community bid backed by Mr Fogle.
"Taransay, the last big island we sold, went quickly and we’re hoping for a similar result with Tanera Mòr," said Mr Bound.
