After a prolonged period of ‘now it’s open, now it’s not’ – including three months when the community stepped in to rent and run it, the Colonsay Hotel is for sale, with the island’s community organising to consider a community buy out.
The period when the community literally manned the pumps included Christmas 2012, with yet another closure imminent before the festivities.
The hotel is the only bar on the island and is absolutely central to supporting the wide range of events this enterprising and idyllic Atlantic island – the farthest out of the chain with Islay and Jura – runs each year.
These days, no remote community can afford not to respond to the opportunity to own the core resources on which its sustainability depends.
A son of Colonsay is the current UK Treasury Secretary, Danny Alexander, so sound financial advice and contacts ought to be available to the Steering Group put together by the Colonsay Community Development Company under Chair, David Johnstone, and now considering their options.
The photograph at the top, of the Colonsay Hotel, is by Catrina Colonsay and is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.
