For the first time in almost 80 years, the entire island of Shuna off Scotland’s west coast is for sale. Shuna is approximately 3 miles long, a mile and a half wide, and encompasses more than 1,000 acres. It’s home to eight residential properties, a crumbling “castle” and flocks of sheep, but no real roads and only passable cell service.
That setup may not be ideal for everyone, but it’s surely someone’s fantasy escape. For those people, it’s listed for £5.5 million ($7.44 million) with Knight Frank.
“It’s really been such a dream island and a huge part of all of our lives,” says Jim Gully, whose family has owned Shuna since the late 1940s after the end of World War II. He says his grandmother—Viscountess Selby—purchased it after walking into an estate agent office in London and asking if they had any islands on their books. “It’d been a pretty traumatic time for lots of people and she was looking for a new start,” he says, sharing the family legend. “They thought it was a fairly eccentric question. They had one island on the west coast of Scotland. So, she bought the island and moved the family up there.”
Gully was brought up on Shuna. “It was such an idyllic place to grow up and explore and have adventures,” he recalls. “As we grew up, we got involved in the farming and the holiday cottages and that side of things too.”
Gully says his father, Edward, had made Shuna his life, raising his family there and starting a vacation-rental and game-shooting business. But he’s relocated to nearby Seil, and now that he’s getting older, he hopes to shift his focus elsewhere. “The idea is that either a family or someone with a fresh vision will come in and invest,” says Gully.
About the Island
Shuna’s 1,100 acres feature a mix of rocky shorelines, sheltered bays and sandy beaches. Its accessible by boat from Craobh Marina or Arduaine Pier on the mainland, a trip that takes 10 minutes; the island also has landing spots for helicopters though not an official helipad. Shuna itself is off the main electricity grid, so solar panels, wind turbines and back-up generators supply power to the cottages on the island. Gully says the sheltered location makes it a haven for wildlife. He’s seen red deer, fallow deer and eagles as well as marine life such as dolphins and seals.
At its highest point, Shuna rises to around 300 feet above sea level, he says. “There’s enough of a rise for there to be all sorts of interesting flora and fauna and landscapes on the island. Its just an incredible playground.”
What Gully calls his childhood playground has been accessible to guests during the warmer months. Seven residential properties are currently operated as vacation homes, and they can house up to 52 guests. The cottages can be rented from April to October, with prices ranging from around £675 to £1,300 per week depending on the season.
Each house has its own boat, so guests can explore. Additional activities include an archery setup by the ruins and the option to volunteer to help with sheep gathering. The homes have kitchens, but the nearest place to buy provisions is off island in the town of Oban, some 20 miles away. (There’s also an eighth house where caretakers have stayed.)
Gully says it’s a very simple, relaxed setup for those who want to get off the grid and take in Scotland’s natural beauty. He adds that his family knows of guests who visited the island as children and later come back with their own grandchildren
The island has a rich history. Archeological evidence indicates it was first settled some 9,000 years ago. A few Iron Age swords were even found in a peat bog in the late 1800s. Shuna was given as a gift by Robert the Bruce to Clan Campbell in 1321, before being transferred to a branch of the Maclean clan later on. In 1910, Shuna was auctioned to George Buckley, who made a fortune in the Australian gold rush. Buckley built the “castle” on the island, complete with turrets, at a cost of between £10 and £30 million in today’s money, according to the brokers. (They also say that Buckley’s architect went down with the Titanic on his way to sell plans for more castles like Shuna’s in the US.)
“The castle’s not that old,” says Gully, who lived there as a child. The building fell into disrepair in the mid 1980s. “But I guess that just the having the flat roof was not a terribly good design feature in Scotland.”
As for who he thinks the likely buyers will be, he says he can easily see imagine Shuna selling to a developer who wants to transform the island into a five-star ecotourism resort. (Rewilding is a hot topic in Scotland right now. Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen has been making headlines with his ambitious conservation project, called WildLand, which spans 220,000 acres and has luxurious cottages, lodges, and a castle where guests can spend the night.)
Of course, Shuna could also be an incredibly private getaway for someone in search of a family home away from all the stresses of modern life, he says.
“We’ve done what we can with the island,” Gully says. “We haven’t had a huge amount of funds to invest in transforming it. So the idea that someone could come along and invest and bring the island back to life is exciting.”
