An island fling on Taransay

For Adam and Cathra Kelliher, buying the uninhabited island of Taransay was an opportunity they knew they couldn't afford to pass up. Our reporter finds out more

• Adam Kelliher with wife Cathra sitting on 'Molly's Rock' on the Borve Estate which overlooks Taransay and which can been seen in the distance across the sea. Picture: Jane Barlow

LOOKING out from their home in Harris across a flat calm sea to the island of Taransay, Adam and Cathra Kelliher can't hide their enthusiasm for the spectacular vista." You can see why we bought it," they say. Cathra first set eyes on the island 30 years ago when she visited the area as a child and its been an integral part of her life ever since.

She and her husband have been coming to the Outer Hebrides together for two decades but their arrival this summer is different; it is the first since they were announced as the new owners of the uninhabited island which was sold in a few days of it being put on the market for 2 million.

Although they do not officially take over until next month, setting foot on Taransay as its new guardians was a special feeling: "It was a phenomenal experience, as well as a humbling one," says Adam. "It's one of those big happy events like getting married or being at the birth of a child. It's that significant. I just could not believe we have this opportunity."

The Kellihers have a wide geographical background - he grew up in New Zealand, she in England and Canada, and together they have lived in the Middle East and London - but they say the greatest emotional pull now comes from this idyllic part of Scotland.

When the opportunity to buy the island arose they decided it was one they could not let slip by, even though initially they had doubts.

"But we knew if we didn't do it we would have regretted it for the rest of our lives," says Cathra.

The story actually starts, not with her early years, but with her father's. David Horrobin visited Harris on a walking holiday when he was 17. "He completely and utterly fell in love with the place," said Cathra. "From then on he wanted to have somewhere here to come to. He was a lover of the natural world and peace and quiet and said this was the most beautiful place he had ever seen."

Horrobin later bought Borve Lodge in Harris, which looks towards Taransay less than a mile away, as part of a deal to set up a research facility for a pharmaceutical company at Callanish in Lewis. The company floated in 1993 but went into administration in 2001.

Horrobin's daughter became enchanted by Borve while on family holidays and began visiting with Adam Kelliher when they became engaged in 1991. He had spent 14 years working as a TV cameraman in war zones and later became a life science entrepreneur, first working in the Middle East and then setting up his own company selling nutritional products based on fish oils.

In 2006 the Callanish base, which had been shut down by its then owners, was bought by a new company formed by the Kellihers, Equateq. Two years later, after Dr Horrobin's death, the couple bought Borve Lodge in their own right.

"It had to be right from a business sense," said Cathra, "but it was mixed in with a big dollop of emotion as well."

The factory's staff rose from 12 to 35 and that number is set to double following a deal struck last month, that would be worth up to 100 million, with US drugs company Amarin to supply concentrated omega-3 fish oils for use in a drug to treat heart and cardiovascular conditions.

The Kellihers' love of the area has passed to their four children, aged between eight and 15 - who have all spent their summer holidays there since they were born.

While Taransay became known around the world as the setting for the BBC reality series Castaway, the Kellihers said they knew little of the programme. Nor did they know much about interest from Ben Fogle, who took part in the show and was reportedly putting together a bid for the island.

In the end they were in direct competition with another, unnamed, bidder. After both bids were initially rejected the sale was decided six days after the island was announced as being up for sale.

Kelliher recalls being in a shopping centre in London when he received the news by phone and blurted out to a computer shop assistant: "I've just bought an island".

Shortly afterwards the family was back in Borve and wasted no time in heading over the Sound of Taransay to see their new acquisition which Adam likens to his native new Zealand - "it's wild, pristine and rugged".

The crossing of just over a mile took only a couple of minutes in the rigid inflatable boat (or Adam's Rib as it's been inevitably dubbed), their eldest son helping with the navigation and the dropping and lifting of lobster creels which were providing that night's supper.

The only other people about, visitors using the old schoolhouse and bothy which have been turned into holiday accommodation, wave but are unaware that the family arriving on the unspoilt white sandy beach actually own it as well as the rest of the land mass.

But they nearly didn't. When the island came unexpectedly on the market the Kellihers initially decided it was the right deal but the wrong time. They were in the process of moving home in England; they were working on the deal for the Callanish business and were involved in building two luxury cottages in the rocks opposite Borve Lodge to help pay for the running of the estate.

"We were juggling a million things in the air," said Cathra. "So when Taransay came on the market our first reaction was 'what a shame, we just can't do it, we're totally overstretched." But following a further few days of reflection they changed their minds:

"We decided this was something we could not play safe on as we would regret it for the rest of our lives, frankly.

"We could stand outside and look over to the island and say 'we played safe and that was stupid.' We realised it was a lifetime opportunity as Taransay will probably never be sold again.

"It also made us realise what we wanted for our children and what our values were. For us it was about the freedom and the skills you gain from going out on the water, bringing in lobster creels, not watching TV all day.

"We were sticking our necks out financially but it made us re-think what we wanted for our family and we realised that we just could not let the island go and that other things would go before this. If things went bad financially we would sell up down south rather than here.

"Increasingly the children are growing into this place. They are leading us, which we find wonderful. This is home base now, this is where we come as a family and this is, as a family, what we will always remember. The kids have no interest in going elsewhere. In fact they want to know why they can't stay longer."

Her husband agrees: "It anchors us coming here. We all do things together, we explore together, we learn together. I just think it's so incredibly rare and incredibly valuable as a family to be able to do what we are doing."

Ownership of Taransay has just added to the emotional connection: "Taransay has always been part of being here at Borve," said Cathra. "My favourite time of day just now is about 11pm when the sun has just gone down and there is this black island just sitting there with a magical orange sunset behind and this translucent sea. We feel privileged and humble and realise what a responsibility it is to own this most beautiful and unspoilt of islands. It would be arrogant to think we are the only ones who could look after it, we don't know what other people would do, but we realise it is a responsibility."

They plan to leave the island much as it is with the low-key holiday accommodation and grazings for former owners, local brothers Angus and Norman Mackay.

"The pristine nature of the island is just so unspeakably different from anywhere else I've ever been," Cathra continues. "Would we want to change that? No. We want to protect that.

"We don't see Taransay as a business venture. If we put up a line of cottages it would change the whole nature of the island."

As they arrive back on Harris, the family are greeted on the beach by the Mackays, whose days of owning Taransay will end in a few weeks after several decades.

"We are happy that it's going to people who obviously enjoy it so much," says Angus Mackay. "It's a very good outcome for everyone."