The island of Tanera Mòr is the largest and only inhabited island in the Summer Isles archipelago off the north west coast of Scotland which has freshwater lochs and a deep anchorage for boats.
Current owners, the Wilder family, bought the island in 1996 and it is currently managed by their daughter Lizzie and her husband Richard Williams. Their ethos in managing Tanera Mòr has been that of minimising interference with the natural ecology whilst using its existing assets to create a successful tourism business.
The Wilder family offered the local Coigach Community a chance to buy the island but they have not been able to take it on, according to leading Scottish property consultants CKD Galbraith which is offering the island through its Inverness office.
A spokesman explained that after careful consideration, the Coigach Community Development Company decided not proceed with the opportunity, due primarily to the number of projects that they are currently managing which include two micro renewable energy projects and the recently completed community purchase of the former Achiltibuie Smokehouse.
The community greatly welcomed the family’s enlightened approach in offering them the chance to buy the island and have expressed their strong desire to support and collaborate with any new owner, recognising the social and economic impact that Tanera Mòr has on the whole Coigach peninsula.
‘After many happy years of calling Tanera home, it is time for someone else to have the privilege of looking after this amazing place. We greatly appreciate the effort made by the local Coigach community to consider the opportunity of taking on Tanera and we fully understand their reasons for deciding not to. We hope that whoever owns the island in the future will enjoy the same warm and co-operative relationship with the community that we have for the past 17 years,’ said Lizzie Williams.
Tanera Mòr is regarded as a flourishing tourist enterprise and has a principal home, The Old School House, with views over the sheltered Anchorage and the mountains on the mainland towards the port of Ullapool.
Over the past 15 years the Wilder family have undertaken a woodland regeneration project, planting over 164,000 native trees. This combined with the use of selective livestock grazing has created lush green pockets across the island, encouraging wildlife to thrive.
It has an established holiday letting business, comprising of six properties with the potential to add a further two properties, which has been expanded in recent years to include residential creative and active courses. There is a Royal Yachting Association recognised sailing school which operates throughout the summer months.
The Café and Post Office operate from a former boathouse and are open for seasonal daily visits by tourist boats from Ullapool and Achiltibuie as well as cruise boats, yachts and sea kayakers. The Summer Isles Post Office located on Tanera Mòr is notable for issuing its own postage stamps, with this year’s new edition released on 09 May.
‘The chance to own your own Scottish island is extremely rare and with Tanera Mòr’s thriving tourist enterprise coupled with being a truly spectacular place to live, we expect to receive a lot of interest as it goes on the open market,’ said John Bound, of CKD Galbraith.
‘With on going support and commitment from the local Coigach community, Tanera Mòr offers a truly fantastic prospect for interested parties who will very much have the island’s heritage and sustainability at heart as well as a fantastic life style,’ he added.
Tanera Mòr was the location that provided inspiration for Frank Fraser Darling's book Island Farm. Having come to live on the island in the late 1930s, Darling studied the habitat of its bird colonies and reclaimed derelict land to agricultural production. His time on the island has left an important legacy through his detailed records along with his influence on the current management of the land and the Tigh an Quay stone pier, which he and his wife Bobby rebuilt by hand.
