Scottish island up for auction with bids starting at $112,000

With people spending more time than ever indoors due to lockdown restrictions, an auction house has announced an entire 11-acre island in the Scottish Highlands will be auctioned online with a starting bid of $111,700.

Auctioneers Future Property said Deer Island, on Scotland’s west coast, is a space that can be “enjoyed with zero chance of intrusion.”

Property manager Stephen McCluskey said the island is being sold for the first time after being owned by the same family for the past 500 years.

The closest island, Eilean Shona, is owned by Vanessa Branson, sister of British businessman Richard Branson.

“They use that as a business — Eilean Shona is bigger, significantly bigger, but they’ve got chalets and a retreat there where a number of celebrities go and stay,” McCluskey told media.

Deer Island, by comparison, is as undeveloped as can be, McCluskey said.

“It’s rock and trees really at the moment — there’s nothing on it — and never been anything [built] on it, or any application to have anything on it,” he said. “There’s nothing at all. It’s been completely uninhabited for 500 years.”

McCluskey said the new owners will have to receive relevant planning permissions from the Scottish government before attempting to build anything on the island.

Deer Island is expected to sell for $209,000 to $279,00 in the March 26 online auction.