Loch Lomond island owned by Kirsty Young goes up for sale at £3m

An uninhabited private island in Loch Lomond owned by the broadcaster Kirsty Young has gone on the market with a £3m price tag.

The radio and TV presenter bought Inchconnachan island - nicknamed Wallaby Island due to it being home to Scotland's only colony of wild wallabies - in 2020 and last year secured permission to build a holiday lodge there.

However, it has now been put up for sale through real estate agent Sotheby's, with two purchase options. Buyers can acquire it with planning permission for £3m or buy it as a turnkey asset - fully completed investment - for £10m.

The optional £7m construction would add in a bespoke luxury retreat, with work expected to take about two years.

Sotheby's describe the island as offering "extraordinary seclusion" and being somewhere that is a "haven for sea eagles and nesting ospreys", while "elevated viewpoints and the sweeping shoreline offer uninterrupted views towards Ben Lomond".

Former Desert Island Discs host Young and her husband Nick Jones, the founder of private members' club chain Soho House, bought the land for £1.6m in 2020 and lodged an application the following year to build a short-stay holiday rental with a new boathouse and a jetty.

The ruins of a 1920s colonial-style timber bungalow would have been demolished as part of the development and a natural wet woodland created on the land.

These plans are still listed by Sotheby's in their description of the land, adding that there will also be associated infrastructure, including paths, boardwalks, drainage, and plant facilities.

The main house will be designed on screw-piled foundations "to preserve the island's precious ecology", with the boathouse positioned within a sheltered cove.

Inchconnachan is classified as an Area of Special Scientific Interest and as a Special Area of Conservation.

The plans faced opposition from wildlife charities, concerned about the impact on the wallabies, but were approved in January last year by Argyll and Bute's planning and access committee.

A spokesperson for the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority said at the time that planning permission would have no implications for the wallabies on the island.

Inchconnachan has been inhabited by wallabies for about 80 years.

They are thought to have been introduced to the island shortly after World War Two by Fiona Bryde Gore, Lady Arran Colquhoun.

Lady Arran is said to have transported them from her home in Hertfordshire where she also kept pot-bellied pigs, llamas and alpacas.

The island is also home to the capercaillie, one of Scotland's most endangered birds.