Private Welsh island with 19th century fort goes on the market
cnn.comI grew up in that area and went to school with a member of the family that owned Thorne Island at the time.
There are times of the year that access is not possible at all due to weather which does limit the usefulness of the location.
The Angle lifeboat isn’t far away in an emergency though, so that’s helpful.
There are other Victorian fort locations in that area in private hands. A different school friend owned more than one of these for a while. Maintenance costs are outrageous!
What I find impressive is that he somehow managed to renovate this property for only $2.7M?! Including 350 helicopter trips over two days!
Why couldn't he rent a boat?
"said the overhaul, which has only been completed this year, cost more than £2 million ($2.7 million)."
Amazing and only £3 million!? Out of my budget but that's probably about the cost of a normal house in London.
Things like this fort make me convinced that automated electric drone taxis could open up a lot of living possibilities. Get one of those and you could turn it into an amazing Airbnb or alternatively a community.
That's a strange conclusion to draw.
There's plenty of open land where people could live without needlessly complicated automated electric drone taxis.
> Amazing and only £3 million!? Out of my budget but that's probably about the cost of a normal house in London.
Yeah, but you have far fewer of the amenities and benefits than a city like London provides. Also, the recurring costs are no doubt greater, like food deliveries, public utilities, etc.
I'd rather live in central London.
And maintenance and running costs are probably higher than a regular house.
If you want to get away from it all there are cheaper alternatives.
And if you are not afraid of maintenance cost, there are also better alternatives, such as a small castle or a farm, closer to where other people live.
> And if you are not afraid of maintenance cost, there are also better alternatives, such as a small castle or a farm, closer to where other people live.
I think the entire point of something like this is to be further from where other people live.
Why compare the price with a London house then?
Not GP, but for me it means that this is affordable for someone "not a billionaire" (for example if your family happens to be from London since generations).
I would keep the London house given the choice though :P
"Tech entrepreneur Mike Conner said the undertaking had been part of a "mid-life crisis.""
This made me laugh. Props, there are far less productive things he could have done.
He seems like a very down to earth guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv2o4q63evg
The idea of owning it is probably more appealing than owning it.
If anyone wonders about motivation for this sort of thing, Adam Nicholson's Sea Room might be worth a look. Nicholson was the owner of the Shiants, three small islands off the Hebrides.
Each of the Shiants are a bit larger and have more features than this fort on a rock though. And Nicholson inherited them and passed them on to his son.
Clearly, it needs a secret tunnel to the mainland, with really good pumps and backup power.
> The fort, which is only accessible by sea or air
Being an island, I sort of expected that.
several uk islands are accessible by bridges.
That's cheating.
Why does the article say it's 3 nautical miles off the coast? If you just zoom out a bit on google maps, I measure the mainland to be less than 1000 ft. away.
I think it’s the distance by boat to the nearest dock, not as the seagull flies
Imagine owning an island fortress with it's own Wikipedia and Grade II* listings!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne_Island
https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300017169-thorne-island...
Try not to imagine the upkeep costs on the historic-listed 2 acres that you paid $4M for - which are only accessible by helicopter, or by risk-tolerant boat (Wikipedia notes a dozen wrecks in the immediate vicinity) and lots of stairs.
For those of you who also have no clue what a Grade II* is, it appears to be a protected status of buildings in the UK - In the UK, listed buildings are graded according to their historic and architectural importance: Grade I: Buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of listings) Grade II*: Particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.5% of listings) Grade II: Buildings of special interest (about 92% of listings) - Thorne Island Fort is classified as "Grade II*" (Grade Two Star) so apparently it's considered particularly important and of more than just special interest.
In particular listed buildings are subject to special planning rules and need permission for any extension, alteration or deletion; the planning authorities can mandate that you do any alterations in particular ways (e.g. use of traditional materials) to avoid damaging the character of the building. This means that everything is more expensive and takes longer. Luckily in this case the current owner seems to have done all that hard work already...
No mention of the freshwater source... line from the shore? Shipped in?
The listing says it has "a 250,000 litre rain harvest system and storage with a reverse osmosis system providing potable water".
Shipped in surely, everything else would need to be anyway. The flushing toilets etc. mentioned as a challenge probably use a rainwater collection system or perhaps seawater (I'm not sure if the latter's done, desalination probably necessary?).
You can run toilets on seawater just fine, maybe some slightly different seals.
It was corrosion to pipes I was thinking of. Though perhaps if nothing existed already they'd have been allowed to use plastic pipework (highly doubt they'd get listed building consent for replacing existing with plastic).
The listing mentions a 30,000 gallon reservior, so I imagine rainwater collecion from the "parade ground".
That'd be my guess also: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/300017169-thorne-island...
The British Listed Buildings site has photos of the fort and boat approach with stairs, picking crane, and sloped ladder lift for getting loads from water to gate.
> The fort’s highlights include ... a sea-view office.
zombie proof as TIL they generally aren't good swimmers. But in a real end of world sitch I think it's from one of those nearby fjordy bits no?
You haven't read World War Z! Zombies don't need to swim, they just walk on river and ocean bottoms. When there's billions of them, a few will make it anywhere.
I dunno I cant paddle in waist high water with scabs or cuts without a little fish taking a chunk out of my leg, and zombies are 100% decaying flesh.
That is a coding retreat done properly. Very nice indeed
It’s going to be a cold hellhole for half the year
Looks like this island doesn't have a real beach or even easy access to the sea for a swim or watersports.
I feel like this heavily defeats the point of owning your own island. Every other private island I've seen on Wikipedia looks like some kind of paradisiac resort. With beaches, greenery, confy gazebos etc..