Who’s is going to buy Ailsa Craig?

The chunky silhouette of Ailsa Craig is well known to us on Arran, as well as to seafarers. Its sugar-loaf shape used to be known as Paddy’s Milestone, a welcome sight to the Irish ferries heading for Ardrossan or Glasgow, or even for today’s returning air passengers looking down at the familiar marker.

Ailsa Craig, with its 245 acres of largely bare rock, used to be occupied by a family who made a living by hewing blocks of the uniquely close-grained granite to be shaped and polished into curling stones. A part of the little island has fertile soil, and with sheep and goats, chickens and vegetables, life could be sustained and enjoyed. But now the island, owned by the 8th Marquess of Ailsa, is being sold for an asking price of £2.5 million.

Knight Frank and Vladi Private Islands are handling the sale of Ailsa Craig and also of Sanda Island off the east coast of the Mull of Kintyre. The Craig is leased to the RSPB until 2050, but Dr Dave Beaumont, RSPB Scotland regional reserves manager, stressed that the organisation could not consider purchasing it at such a high asking price. He said,  “We rely on the generosity of individuals and grants from public and commercial bodies for our income, and as a charity we need to make sure these funds go as far as they can. Our lease on the island runs until 2050, and this currently allows us to achieve our conservation goals. We will be watching the sale closely and will be very keen to work with the new owners to further the conservation of this magnificent island.”

Ailsa Craig is home to the third largest gannet colony in Scotland, and provides a perfect nesting site for guillemots and kittiwakes. For some reason, it also has a population of some of the UK’s largest slow worms. In the 19th century, stow-away rats installed themselves on the island and decimated the population of tens of thousands of puffins that used to breed in burrows at the top of the island’s cliffs. A vigorous rat-eradication programme has been successful, and the puffins are beginning to recover.
 
Landing on Ailsa Craig is not encouraged at present due to the poor state of the pier, as well as possible disturbance to the birds, but there are occasional boat trips, both from Arran and Girvan, which give you a good close-up view of the massive bird colonies.

Find out more by visiting: www.rspb.org.uk/ailsacraig.