We’ve all dreamed of having our own personal slice of far-flung island paradise. This year especially, effing off to somewhere totally cut off from the outside world has felt very tempting indeed.
Well, if you’re feeling particularly spontaneous right now, here’s your chance. A huge island in the middle of Norway’s Sørfjorden (south fjord) has just gone on the market – and it’s incredibly beautiful. It comes complete with 23 acres of forest and meadowland, along with 30 buildings including a 20,000-square-foot main house, five more ‘dwellings’, a barn, boathouse, playground, football pitch and several bathing areas.
For more than a century, the island of Ulvsnesøy – also known as Ulvsnes – was once home to a school for ‘misbehaving boys’, which earned it the nickname ‘Devil’s Island’.
Photograph: JamesEdition
After the school closed in 1982, the island hosted as a low-security prison, which closed only last year. It has since been sold to a private buyer, who turned it into a fully-functioning farm with horses, sheep, alpacas, pigs, poultry and cultivated land.
Fortunately – if you like the familiar comforts of bars, restaurants, supermarkets and, y’know, a little human company – the island is only a 30-minute boat ride from Norway’s second city, Bergen. In nearby Vaksdal, on the mainland, the buyer will also have access to both a parking space and a boat docking area.
Unsurprisingly, Ulvsnesøy doesn’t come cheap: you’ll have to have a cool £2.5 million ($3.2 million or A$4.6 million) kicking around to meet the asking price. But then again, if you and ten or so friends all banded together in an attempt to create some utopian, post-’rona ‘island community’, things would start sounding a lot more reasonable. Just an idea.
For more information, click here.
More cool places to buy (if you’ve got a load of spare cash):
The house that inspired Wuthering Heights is now for sale
This remote pink Scottish castle is currently on the market
The ‘most haunted house’ in Ireland could be yours – for €2.5 million