Your report on the sale of the Lodge on Eigg (February 21) omitted to mention that the offer price for the house and immediate policies is (pounds) 25,000. The lodge is a large house, designed by a distinguished architect in an unusual style and situated in a physically-idyllic location. When I went over it in 1996 while researching my book, Isles of the West, it was not in a perfect state of repair, but it was in good, habitable condition. As such, it would today probably be worth between (pounds) 150,000 and (pounds) 250,000.
Why has the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust allowed this beautiful, if unpractical, building to decay to the point where it has agreed to a sale at less than the price of a gardenless, two-bedroomed council house on Islay? Is this transaction a ''sweet-heart'' deal which does not represent the true value, or has the trust's stewardship of its assets been such that the focus of the island's built environment has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that, as your article mentions, over (pounds) 2m will be needed to restore it?
Either way, it ought to be a scandal, especially as Eigg has been so often mentioned by the advocates of collectivised land reform as the shining example of the virtues and benefits of community ownership.
Ian Mitchell,
86 Lennox Street, Port Ellen, Isle of Islay.
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