A Vanity Project or a Home? - Anne Tait

Member Anne Tait’s talk  “A Vanity Project or a Home?” referred to Shuna House on the small privately owned island of Shuna in the Inner Hebrides. Anne’s family has a history of visiting the island on a number of sailing holidays and on her first visit discovered there was a half-derelict turreted old house. As Shuna House became totally derelict and out of use, Anne researched its history for her talk.

Shuna House was built in 1919 by the then island owner, New Zealand adventurer George Buckley, who it turns out rarely lived there. Over the years since Shuna House was built, the island has changed hands a number of times and was never really a family home, thereby being neglected and now just a ruin, with even the old furniture and old cars being left to disintegrate.  Thus some doubt exists as to whether Shuna House was ever designed to be a family home, rather than just a vanity project or folly.

Today, Shuna Island has small farm and some holiday cottages but very few amenities eg no TV or WIFI. However, as Anne explained, the island itself is a lovely place to visit when sailing the Inner Hebrides and illustrated her talk with photographs of her family enjoying their visits.

Graeme Simpson gave vote of thanks for fascinating story told with some humour, and David Gray closed meeting with Rotary toast.