One-resident island - Sanda - sold for £2.5m

A SCOTTISH island with just one resident and its own pub has been sold to a Swiss businessman for about £2.5 million.

Sanda, which lies off the tip of the Mull of Kintyre, 13 miles south of Campbeltown and 20 miles east of Ballycastle in Northern Ireland, has been sold.

Neighbouring Sheep Island and Glunimore Island were included in the deal.

Dick Gannon, 59, who has owned the trio of islands for 20 years, along with his wife Meg, confirmed the sale yesterday.

He said: "The island is sold, close to the asking price, to a customer sent over by Hamburg-based selling agents Vladi Private islands but I can't say any more about the sale than that.

"The new owner is taking over at the end of April. It's a bit of a mystery what he is going to do but I am hoping it will go on as it is now, as a business, as a tourist destination."

The buyer has been named locally, in Kintyre, as Michi Meier, who is originally from Switzerland but now lives in Sweden.

Mr Meier could not be contacted yesterday but he has been speaking to a number of business people in Kintyre about services for the island.

Terry Smith, who owns farm land at Southend, near the Mull of Kintyre – which is the nearest mainland point to the 314 acre isle of Sanda – said Mr Meier had visited him last week.

And he said he understands that the new owner intends to run Sanda for his family's private use.