Last minute community buyout bid halts sale of Scottish island

The sale of an island in the Inner Hebrides that was put on the market this month with a price tag of £4.25 million has been halted after last ditch plans for a community buyout emerged.

The island of Ulva, which has just six permanent residents, won’t now be imminently sold as the new plan is put together in a development that has been welcomed by land reform campaigners.

The island, which sits between two peninsulas near Mull, has no tarmac roads, is accessible only by a ferry and has no pubs or restaurants anywhere on its 4,500 acres.

However, it has attracted well-known names over the years, including explorer David Livingstone and children’s author Beatrix Potter and was the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott’s poem, The Lord Of The Isles.

Ulva was being marketed by estate agents Knight Frank after it was inherited by the children of Jean Howard, who died in 2014.

Mrs Howard inherited Ulva in the 1970s from her mother, Edith, Lady Congleton, granddaughter of Lord Strathcona.

Lady Congleton had bought it for just £10,000 after the Second World War with money from a fortune amassed by her grandfather, who had worked on the Pacific Railway in Canada.

Ulva was gifted to Mrs Howard’s son and daughter shortly after her death but they had now decided to sell.

However, in a dramatic twist, the community trust on neighbouring Mull have approached the Scottish Government to seek permission to organise a community buyout.

The plan will put to the test Land Reform legislation enacted by the Scottish Government, with environment minister Roseanna Cunningham charged with deciding if the buyout proposal has come too late.

Billed as the ultimate private island getaway, the island was expected to fetch over £4m on the open market.