Castle made famous by adventurer Samuel Johnson for sale

A remote Scottish castle that tested the adventuring spirit of writer Samuel Johnson to destruction is on the market for £450,000.
Breachacha Castle. Picture: Phil WilkinsonBreachacha Castle. Picture: Phil Wilkinson
Breachacha Castle. Picture: Phil Wilkinson

A remote Scottish castle that tested the adventuring spirit of writer Samuel Johnson to destruction is on the market for £450,000.

Breachacha Castle is an A-listed Georgian building on the southern end of the Isle of Coll, boasting sea views as spectacular as the solitude. Johnson stayed at the property during an 83-day tour of the Western Isles with his biographer, James Boswell, in 1773.

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He first described his temporary accommodation as a “neat, new-built gentleman’s house” and used it as a base for his travels. A few weeks later he was driven from the island by its fierce weather, describing the castle as a “tradesman’s box” and living on Coll “a waste of life”.

Even the sellers admit restoring the castle is not a project for the “fainthearted”.

The current owners mainly live in the top two floors of the three-storey structure, which boasts six bedrooms and two bathrooms. Work is required to bring the centuries-old castle into the modern day.

Boswell’s subsequent account of their trip, The Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, later formed the basis of his biographical work The Life of Samuel Johnson.

Breachacha Castle is not to be confused with a 15th-century structure of the same name, located 140m away from the castle that is on the market.

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