Isle of Grunay in Shetland for sale at £85k

THE Isle of Grunay in Shetland has been put on the market for just £85,000.
The island was bought 12 years ago and the owner is looking to sell it on. Picture: Knight FrankThe island was bought 12 years ago and the owner is looking to sell it on. Picture: Knight Frank
The island was bought 12 years ago and the owner is looking to sell it on. Picture: Knight Frank

Located in the Out Skerries just 200 miles from Norway, Grunay is uninhabited, with both lighthouse keeper’s houses lying abandoned for some time.

Potential buyers will also have to contend with a lack of electricity and running water - as well as no mobile phone signal - while the nearest local amenities are on the nearby islands of Housay and Bruray, comprising a post office, church, school, two shops and a car ferry.

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Included in the relatively modest asking price is 56 acres of land, and the large ruined structure known as The Broch.

The buyer will get 56 acres of land. Picture: Knight FrankThe buyer will get 56 acres of land. Picture: Knight Frank
The buyer will get 56 acres of land. Picture: Knight Frank

Estate agent firm Knight Frank, who is selling the island, said: “Although it is not known whether [The Broch] dates from the Iron Age, such structures were built during this time throughout the far north of Scotland.”

Jackie Baldwin, who bought the island in 2003 ‘on a whim’, is keen to sell Grunay to someone so that houses can be developed and the Out Skerries community boosted.

Since buying the island 12 years ago, Mrs Baldwin has visited just a handful of times due to family and work commitments but is hopeful that by selling the island, she is allowing for its future to be safeguarded.

Of particular importance during World War II, the Out Skerries were a regular stop-off point for Norwegian boats carrying people who had escaped from Nazi occupation.

Luftwaffe aircraft bombed the island in 1942, reportedly demolishing a boatman’s hut and killing his mother in the process while the lighthouse was also targeted but remained largely intact.

A British Blenheim Bomber crashed on the island during the conflict, killing its crew of two Canadians and one Englishman. A memorial plaque was placed on the island a few years ago by one of the victim’s children.

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