£1.5m estate that could be yours for £55

ONE lucky person could become the owner of an idyllic island estate – for the cost of a £55 raffle ticket.

the seven-acre Balmichael Centre, near shiskine, on Arran, has an adventure playground, 42-seat cinema, coffee shop, gym, grass sledging area, go-karts, duck ponds and even a synthetic ice skating rink.

its owner, former Army medic James Clark, decided to raffle the property, valued at around £1.5million, to raise funds for the humanitarian charity Boots on the Ground, which provides disaster relief and support for communities hit by disasters.

the new owner of the centre – which has no outstanding debts – will be able to turn the prize into a business venture by leasing out commercial units at the site.

Mr Clark said: ‘it’s a real out-of-the-box way to do things, and when it succeeds, we’ll be changing not just the winner’s life but those who are less fortunate.

‘We could have just sold it the traditional route or even raffled it off as a “for profit” venture, but we want to do something more meaningful. it’s pretty exciting.’

the raffle started on saturday. single tickets can be bought for £55 on the website islandraffle.com.

All profits will go to Boots on the Ground, which has recently been active in Haiti, where it helped earthquake survivors.

the draw will be on June 1, 2017, or earlier if all tickets are sold before that date.