Tanera Mor in the Summer Isles sounds as eccentric as it is idyllic – Scotsman comment

The views from Tanera are spectacular

The name of a Scottish island has come to define the philosophy of the community of people who live and work there

Tanera Mor is the name of one of the Summer Isles. However, according to financier Ian Wace, who bought the island for £1.7 million in 2017, it is so much more, not just a proper noun, but a verb and an adjective too.

“I do believe you can say ‘that is not very Tanera’ or ‘we Tanera’d it’ and it means something to those who have been to Tanera. It certainly means something to the team building it,” he said. Asked to define it, he admitted he couldn’t or at least “not in words”. “It is in feeling. It is warming, homely, comforting. Calm, aspiring, risky but controlled, quality and care, and a place of wholeness,” he ‘explained’.

What can be said is that it employs about 150 people and that invited guests can find respite in this stunningly beautiful place, where no money changes hands and activities include potato planting and collecting kelp with ponies. It sounds as eccentric as it does idyllic, but there’s surely a place for that.