This £190k 'mystical' island for sale off Skye has a sixth-century St Columba chapel

A private island off Skye with the remains of a sixth-century chapel built by St Columba has come to the market.

Fladda-Chuain is for sale for offers over £190,000. While there are no services on the island, it may be possible to build a small hut, subject to planning consent. The name translates as “Flat Island of the Ocean” and is part of the Fladda Island Chain, three miles north-west of Skye’s Trotternish peninsula. It offers exceptional views that include the dramatic mountains of Skye and the northern Highlands and the picturesque Inner Hebrides.

Fladda-Chuain, an unspoilt and uninhabited 27-hectare island, is steeped in myth and legend.

Identified by some as the mysterious Tír na nÓg, “The Isle of Perpetual Youth” in Irish mythology, it was believed to be a sacred place where it is always summer and the sun never sets.

It is said druids believed puffins always circled the island three times before starting a new journey and did the same on Skye before leaving. Some say this was the origin of an old Skye tradition in which people turned three times before starting a new enterprise.

Goldcrest, which are managing the sale, said the island was teeming with birdlife, including storm petrels, puffins and black guillemots. It is often possible to spot porpoises, dolphins, whales, basking sharks and otters in the waters around the island.

There are also coves and inlets, which provide several landing places for small boats and kayaks, plus deep clear waters of the Minch that offer diving sites.

When St Columba brought Christianity to the islands in the sixth century, he built a chapel on Fladda-Chuain - the remains of which are still to be found on the west side of the island. 

It seems Vikings were once visitors with an 11th-century gold ring found on Fladda Chuain in 1851 now on display in the National Museum of Scotland.

The last inhabitant was known as ““Am Muileach Mòr”, meaning either “Big Mullman” or “Man of the Headland”.

Jock Galbraith, partner at selling agents Goldcrest, said: “Fladda-Chuain has all the tranquillity, peace and romance associated with a west coast island. This sale offers an exceptionally rare opportunity.

“Found off Skye’s north-west coast, Fladda-Chuain provides a fabulous sanctuary to the buyer looking for solitude and a place from which to enjoy some of the most remarkable surroundings Scotland has to offer. Imagine arriving by RIB [boat] or kayak for a night’s camping in your own little bit of rugged wilderness, and eating fish and lobster caught off the rocks whilst watching a glorious sunset over the Outer Hebrides.”