The Scottish island that bought itself
100 residents now own the island they live on—not some billionaire.
n 1997, 65 people living on the Scottish island of Eigg purchased the island together.
For centuries, the island had been owned by landlords who didn’t live on the island, much less invest in its improvement. Rents were extracted, infrastructure decayed, populations collapsed. Residents relied on diesel generators and fuel shipped in from the mainland, which made energy expensive and unreliable.
When a wealthy artist bought the island as his own personal lifestyle retreat in the 1980s, that was the final straw. He refused to improve roads and infrastructure and tried to evict the island’s residents when they objected.
Islanders united against him, so did the press and media, and wider public opinion. Scottish authorities intervened, stopping the island’s owner from evicting residents and forcing him to provide at least minimum habitability. Meanwhile, the owner struggled financially and was forced to put the island up for sale in 1997. By then, the island had organized, raised public and charitable funding, and formed the Eigg Heritage Trust, which purchased the island on behalf of residents.
Islanders bought the island they lived on.
Subscribe for free to keep reading.
Get every essay in your inbox
Weekly essays exploring a utopian future.
Join 23,254 subscribers