Large part of Scottish island owned by famed shark hunter for sale
Tex Geddes was a legendary shark hunter - plus boxer, knife thrower and all round adventurer - who made his life on Soay in the Inner Hebrides.
The home of a famed shark hunter in Scotland - and a large part of the island where he lived and worked - has come up for sale.
Tex Geddes made his home on Soay, off the isle of Skye, after buying the island from his business partner, the naturalist Gavin Maxwell, in 1952.
The pair hunted basking sharks around the Inner and Outer Hebrides and ran a processing plant on Soay to process the lucrative oil found in their liver, with the animals hunted in west coast waters for more than 200 years for the commodity.
Now, the house of Tex Geddes, who died in 1998, is being sold on by his family.
The sale includes around 1,500 acres of croftland - around 60 per cent of the entire island - with offers over £975,000 sought for the property.
Agents Strutt & Parker said the sale was an “extremely rare opportunity” to buy the property, which covered a “large portion” of Soay.
A statement said: “The Island of Soay is located in one the most dramatic settings in the western highlands, located in the middle of Loch Scavaig
“Lying in the shadow of the iconic Black Cuillin mountains of Skye to the north, the island also enjoys panoramic views to the mountains of Knoydart and Ardnamurchan in the east.
“The other inner Hebridean islands of Eigg, Much, Rhum and Canna also provide an interesting sea scape to the west.”
Mr Geddes’ former home, which is in need of complete upgrading, sits on the shore of Camus nan Gall, where “various other properties” owned by third parties can be found.
The house is traditional stone and slate, with two public rooms on the ground floor and two bedrooms and bathroom on the first floor.
A former meeting place or hall has been built onto the southern gable.
Access to Soay is by boat from Elgol on Skye.
Mr Geddes, who was also regarded as a boxer, a knife thrower and rum runner, bought Soay with his wife Jeanne.
He earlier met Mr Maxwell at Meoble Lodge near Lochailort, a special operations training base during the Second World War.
In his autobiography Hebridean Sharker, Mr Geddes, originally from Peterhead, described harpooning a “great number of sharks first of all with hand harpoons” with Mr Maxwell, much in the “fashion of Moby Dick”.
He added: “In retrospect some of our early hand harpoons appeared ridiculously inadequate; we might as well have tried to catch a shark with a kitchen fork.”
Mr Geddes said he would never forget the spectacle of towing his first shark into Mallaig harbour “should I live to be a hundred”.
Life on Soay also became the theme of a book, Island on the Edge, written by Anne Cholawo, who relocated there from London.
Agents said the new owners of the house and 1,500 acres of Soay would acquire an “interesting mixture” of land, including pasture, rough grazing and woodlands - along with eight named hill lochs.
A statement added: “The land provides an interesting habitat and topography and offers an excellent opportunity for a purchaser to explore environmental and woodland schemes and to enjoy the natural capital of the land and surroundings.
“There is also a population of red deer on Soay which offers some stalking for sport and management purposes.”
The property is also a “fantastic base for sailing enthusiasts” given the extremely sheltered natural harbour to the north east of the house.
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