My two least favourite things about London? I’ll likely never be able to afford a house here and there are people everywhere I go. Like every Londoner, I’m constantly threatening to pack it all in and move to the middle of nowhere whenever this city becomes too much. But only now have I found the dream location – a lighthouse keeper’s building on one of the tiniest Orkney Islands with no one else around for miles.
The uninhabited island of Copinsay is home to nothing but grey seals, a few rare birds, fields and a lighthouse, which sounds ideal to me. The lighthouse keeper’s building (which also comes with several outbuildings, like a tractor shed and another shed by the pier) is also unbelievably cheap – at £80,000, you won’t find a bargain like that in London.
Sure, we’d have to give up all the home comforts of city life – coffee shops, cinemas, pubs, etc. But the property does come with two quad bikes and a Pico sailing dinghy to explore the island, so that’s a fair trade-off, right? It also has two helicopter pads if you want to learn to fly, which we can easily afford now we’re not going to brunch every weekend.
The main building – a two-story structure with seven bedrooms, one living room and a bathroom – does require renovation, however. K Allan Properties, the estate agents looking after Copinsay Lighthouse Keepers Buildings, call it “a blank canvas awaiting your vision.” But let’s be realistic for a second, you’ll need a lot of grit and determination to transform this…
You will benefit from a fully restored private well, complete with a generator-operated electric pump, ensuring a reliable water supply. Plus, the property is equipped with Calor gas heating for cosy comfort. Solar panels, which require fitting onto the property, and previously approved planning permission for a wind turbine could turn this into the dream eco-home.
Now, before you start planning the 700-and-something-mile trip to your new life off mainland Scotland, you should know that the lighthouse doesn’t come in the sale – it’s owned and controlled remotely by the Northern Lighthouse Board. There’s also an ancient burial site on the island and a creepy, old myth about the Copinsay Brownie – a creature who’d feast on the bones of those lost at sea…
If this still sounds like your dream home, you can learn more about it by heading here.