How to REALLY get away from it all
Fancy living in a castle on your own island? Feast your eyes on Vaila (and then check your lottery numbers!)
WITH prices soaring, Covid cases on the rise and strikes threatening to cause misery this summer, it could be the ideal time to think about getting away from it all. Now, a new addition to the Scottish property market offers the perfect opportunity to secure some much-needed peace and tranquillity.
The Isle of Vaila presents a prospective buyer with a rare chance to own 757 acres of land with complete privacy and truly breathtaking scenery. The only catch? It will cost a cool £1.75million.
Situated in the west of the Shetland Islands archipelago, Vaila is perfectly secluded but also allows its owner to reach the Shetland mainland in only ten minutes by boat. The island’s near seven-mile coastline encompasses rugged cliffs, rocky outcrops, caves and pebble beaches visited by seabirds such as fulmars, great skuas, kittiwakes and puffins as well as estuary birds including curlews, snipe and oystercatchers.
Otters and orcas can also often be seen playing in the turquoise waters around the island, which on a clear day boasts uninterrupted views to Fair Isle to the south and the Isle of Foula to the west.
A jaunt to Lerwick, the capital of Shetland, offers amenities including boutique shops and art galleries.
The island was even lauded by Britain’s one-time Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who once remarked: ‘I can think of few nicer places in the world.’
The new owner’s accommodation will be the impressive Vaila Hall – a prominent landmark with its stone steps, turrets and battlements.
It has six bedrooms and four reception rooms, and was once the laird’s estate, before being used as a summer residence and to host lavish parties for the island’s residents and employees in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The master bedroom boasts panoramic views over the sea through four windows, while the 17th century mansion’s Great Hall is the perfect place to hole up. It has furniture from the late 1800s and is centred around a massive stone arched fireplace.
The island also comes with an 18th century watchtower, a two-bedroom caretaker’s cottage and a three-bedroom farmhouse.
Once home to Norwegian Viking chiefs, the island was later owned by Arthur Anderson, the founder of the P&O shipping company, who also established the Shetland Fishery Company from the island.
In 1893, it was sold to Herbert Anderton, a Yorkshire mill owner, who developed Vaila as a farm before it was purchased in 1993 by Richard Rowland and Dorota Rychlik, who moved there to escape the rat race.
And who knows, with tonight’s lottery jackpot sitting at a whopping £4million, you might have just the ticket for its future.