Globusz^® Publishing 

It was not difficult to find out who the agents for the sale of the island were. Just a couple of calls and I had the number and then the address in Edinburgh. A short telephone conversation quickly established that the island, named Enniskerry, was indeed still available for purchase. I was addressed as “Sir” rather more often than I was used to and a meeting was arranged.

I journeyed north the next day and a young secretary showed me into a luxurious, deeply carpeted office where everything had been discretely and perfectly arranged as one would expect from a firm that dealt in properties for sale with those all-important seven digits. The “Sirs” continued for a while but, mercifully, reduced in frequency, as a conversation got under way. I soon realised that this was covering only the preliminaries; I had not as yet reached the inner sanctum of this establishment. A gentleman emerged to shake my hand. His appearance was sudden but not intrusive. I noticed his refined Scottish accent as he welcomed my presence and offered tea or coffee. He was probably older than he looked but I find I am rather a poor judge of people’s ages. He placed on the desk before him a large colourful brochure and said, that, as far as he was aware, it contained virtually all the essential details relating to the island.

Gradually, he edged out of me something of my background. Who I was, and how I was in a position to consider this particular property. I think he sensed quite early that I was not used to dealing in purchases of this magnitude. I did not feel at a disadvantage but I needed to know that he was a person that I could trust, and so I talked around rather than about the subject of the actual purchase for some time, gradually getting to know him better as an individual as opposed to the estate agent that he was. At the same time, I gave him some more indications of my lack of experience. The most expensive thing I had bought was my own house which several years ago, only cost about seventy thousand pounds. Although inflation had now increased this figure considerably, I was now considering something around four million pounds. Fortunately, I gathered that it was not a normal sale for him, he was quite used to selling properties up to and above this value but they tended to be luxury mansions and even castles — he had never yet sold an island. I suppose from his point of view, the actual deal would not be vastly different to his previous sales but he seemed personally involved and interested to the extent that I believed it was in some way special for him. He had obviously done much research, and I wanted to avail myself of every possible detail that I could extract.

I learned that there had been two other prospective purchasers but they had been unable to make an offer to the satisfaction of the vendor even though the agent had given considerable time, effort and persuasion to conclude the deal. It would seem that my offer should be equal to or above theirs, but also of some importance were my intentions with regard to how I intended to manage the island. Although I sensed that the price was by far the overriding factor, my objectives would also rate highly.

The agent told me that the previous owner had made his fortune in the tailoring business in Hong Kong and had hoped to make a profit as a result of developing the forestry potential of the island. However his business interests in the Far East had demanded more of his time and he had decided to sell after a relatively short period of ownership. There had been a series of absentee landlords for much of the time before his period of ownership and this had contributed to the increasing despair of his tenants and their declining standard of life. The agent felt that although the owner had good intentions regarding his tenants and the island’s well being as a whole, he was unable to bring any of his ideas to fruition. Hence his interest in the intentions of any new owner to bring some of the benefits to the island which he was unable to achieve.

I established that the island was administered as one of the Western Isles and was within the district of Argyll and Bute. It could be reached by way of the peninsular of Kintyre but there was no regular ferry service which of course was not surprising given that the island was now uninhabited.

“Many of the smaller islands, particularly in the Outer Hebrides, are uninhabited” — said the agent. “Depopulation was exacerbated in the nineteenth century by the Highland clearances when the landowners forcibly evicted the crofters from their lands in order to convert them into extensive sheep farms. In addition, there had been a continued depopulation of many of the smaller islands in the twentieth century, primarily because of the lack of economic opportunities.” He went on to explain that rural depopulation was felt particularly severely on the islands off the western coast, and continued today, reflecting the marginal of hill farming in general and the attraction of better employment opportunities in Inverness and the oil-related industries of the west shore of the Moray Firth and Aberdeen areas. Enniskerry was the latest casualty of this process.

Crofting, had been the traditional mainstay of the economy. The typical croft, a small rented farm, could be just a few acres with a handful of sheep, a cow, and enough crops to supplement the diet and provide a small income. On Enniskerry the standard of living had declined, and when the ferry company withdrew its regular service the council had little option other than step in and take the remaining few off to the mainland as an act of compassion. This had occurred just over a year ago and the island has remained unpopulated since then, the current owner never having been in regular residence in recent times.

“The main lodge on Enniskerry — the agent continued — known locally as the Lairds house, consists of some sixteen large rooms on two floors. It stands in a quite extensive garden stocked with herbaceous plants, mature pine and palm trees, together with rhododendrons and azaleas. There is also a walled garden with a greenhouse, although this is in a poor state of repair, and fifty acres of woodland. There are about twenty crofts and houses, about half of them habitable, the other half needing refurbishment. And there are numerous other outbuildings, barns, sheds and derelict homesteads. The island is a natural habitat for pheasant and other game birds, three freshwater lochs stock various varieties of fish and there are salmon fishing rights around the island. The eastern shoreline has three magnificent beaches and four safe anchorages. I think that should give you an idea of your intended purchase” — the agent concluded. “Is there anything you are not clear about?”

There were many other questions and we continued our discussion, now on a much more informal basis. “Do you know — he said — when I last spoke to the Laird of Enniskerry, he explained that Lairds of the past and present have, in general, had a very bad press in regard to the history of the Western Isles? So often they used their power unfairly and the crofters’ life was hard and without adequate rewards.”

He told me a story about a crofter who questioned his Laird concerning the rightful ownership his Hebridean Island.“

The Laird had purchased the island, some years before, and had signed an agreement of sale on the dotted line. It was totally legal. But the crofter wanted to know, did the Laird, have the historical right to own the land? The crofter believed that the indigenous Scots were the rightful owners long before the Laird was even born, let alone just a year or so ago when he had paid out money for the island. Furthermore, the Laird was not even of Scottish descent.

“He continued to reason that a person could buy and own a house, a plot of land, even an island, but thankfully, he couldn’t buy an area of the sky above or the air that is there to breathe. Real ownership is something quite different. “Who owns England? Who owns America?” — he asked, his voice rising to make the point.

“The Laird did not have an immediate satisfactory answer, but he did understand the crofter’s basic message, that we are all here momentarily, in a sense on trust, and in that judgment he saw that he could not own the island, the land belonged to those who had lived on the island before or even to everyone now. In effect the Laird had, by virtue of his monetary power plundered the land on which he stood. The onslaught did not, and perhaps it was not intended to, encourage him to give up any of his land or wealth, but it did cause him some time of inward reflection on the status of ownership.”

The agent leaned back in his chair. “This is not to put you off the purchase, I hasten to add, but I thought it may give a flavour of how the crofting population of the isles can think about their landlords.”

“It certainly does” — I replied. “I’ll keep these comments in mind, but perhaps you’ll agree that I will be somewhat insulated because I won’t be lording it over anyone. My fellow islanders will all be volunteers.”

“That’s true” — he said. “Can I offer you another drink?” I accepted his offer and we continued with our discussion. I was learning fast.