Island for sale: Tanera Mòr could be yours for £2.5m

ONE of Scotland’s “most renowned and beautiful” islands is being put up for sale for £2.5 million.

Tanera Mòr is the largest and only inhabited island in the Summer Isles archipelago. Picture: PA

The stunning Tanera Mòr is the only inhabited island in the Summer Isles archipelago off the north-west coast of Scotland, and is famous for issuing its own stamps and inspiring renowned ecologist Sir Frank Fraser Darling’s 1943 tome Island Farm.

At 800 acres, the former herring fishing port island is the largest and most significant in the group of islands and its freshwater lochans and deep, sheltered anchorage provided a safe stopover on northward sea journeys before the nearby mainland port of Ullapool was established.

Property consultants CKD Galbraith in Inverness, said the sale was an “extremely rare” chance to own a Scottish island and they expect “a lot of interest” in the property.

The current owners, the Wilder family, bought the island in 1996 and have been resident ever since. The island is currently managed by their daughter Lizzie and her husband Richard Williams.

The family’s ethos in managing Tanera Mòr has been that of minimising interference with the natural ecology while using its existing assets to create a successful tourism business.

The Wilder family, who have been part of the local community, decided to hold discussions with the local Coigach Community to establish whether they would be interested in buying the island, before offering it on the open market.

After careful consideration, the Coigach Community Development Company decided not to proceed with the opportunity, due primarily to the number of projects that they are currently managing, including two micro-renewable energy projects and the recently completed community purchase of the former Achiltibuie Smokehouse.

The community has welcomed the family’s “enlightened approach” in offering them the chance to buy the island, however, and have expressed their strong desire to support and collaborate with any new owner, recognising the social and economic impact that Tanera Mòr has on the whole Coigach peninsula.

Lizzie Williams 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 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.”

Under their successful management, Tanera Mòr is a flourishing tourist enterprise and superb family residence.

The principal house – The Old School House – boasts breathtaking views over the sheltered Anchorage and magnificent mountains of the mainland.