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IF you fancy running an award-winning pub on a Scottish island, the dream is yours for offers over £3.2million.
The Gannon family are selling Sanda after 19 years, which have seen them transform the island’s fortunes.
Midway between the Mull of Kintyre and Northern Ireland, Sanda was all but derelict when Dick and Meg Gannon moved their young family there 19 years ago after buying the 314-acre island and the two smaller ones for £250,000. The decision to sell came after Dick and Meg decided to divorce.
The island has been transformed with a farmhouse, six self-catering holiday cottages and the Byron Darnton pub, which draws customers from both sides of the North Channel as well as passing yachtsmen and women; Princess Anne particularly likes to visit and buy the island’s free-range eggs.
The sale also includes Sheep Island and its flock of Soay sheep plus 350 breeding ewes on Sanda and the very small Glunimore Island. Previous owners have included rock star Jack Bruce.
The islands are being advertised worldwide through a Germany company that deals exclusively with the sale of islands and Knight Franks of Edinburgh.
The new owner will have a home where wildlife thrives in the Site of Special Scientific Interest and a large slice of history; there are the ruins of St Ninian’s Chapel and the saint is reputed to be buried on the island.
The decision to sell was made by Dick and Meg when their children, Anna, aged 31, Ben, 29; Emma, 27 and Ellie, 25, did not want to continue the business.
‘None of the kids wanted to take it on and they saw us working all hours there; besides that all just beginning to make their way in the world,’ said Meg.
She hopes Sanda’s new owner will be pro-active and continue to develop them and take care of their unique wildlife.
Meg added: ‘Twenty years ago people did not have the fast boats or RIBs they do today. We have always been well supported by the Kintyre community, and visitors of Ireland and the sailing community.’
Meg plans to stay in Campbeltown; she is also the owner of the ladies clothes shop, Streetwise.
