Ritual of planning permission could burn up plans for holiday resort on ‘Wicker Man island’

The island of Tanera Mor inspired cult classic The Wicker Man, the tale of an outsider from the mainland falling foul of local pagan customs.

Now the Scottish island’s new millionaire owner could fall foul of local planning regulations, which may hinder his plans for a “world class” resort.

Hedge fund manager Ian Wace, the husband of model Saffron Aldridge, bought Tanera Mor for £1,695,000 in 2017, and set about transforming the barely inhabited outpost into a holiday destination with new cottages, a private chapel, and a floating cinema.

But Highland Council planning officials have now raised concerns with building work on the remote island, after construction was started prior to seeking permission.

The planning intervention may frustrate plans drawn up by Mr Wace to establish a booming holiday community on Tanera Mor, which is the largest island of the Summer Isles archipelago off Scotland’s west coast.

The island is believed to be the inspiration for Summerisle, the setting for the 1973 horror film The Wicker Man, in which a policeman from the mainland falls victim to the islanders’ sacrificial rites.

The real-life island was a centre for herring fishing, but became depopulated as the industry declined, with only a handful of residents remaining after 1931.

The island has been in private hands since being bought in the 1960s, and until recently has been so inundated and wild that TV adventurer and crofter Ben Fogle has spent time there.

Mr Wace’s company Summer Isles Enterprises had applied in … - after work had already begun, according to planning documents - to construct “mechanics house” and a “multi-purpose building” on the site of  one of the island’s former herring fishing stations

But council experts have warned that the 2000-square-metre site on which the mechanics house is being built could be “contaminated” by an old “gravel pit”, and advised that “no development shall commence” until the issue is dealt with.

A floating cinema has been installed on a retired steamship, the SS Davenham, which sits offshore, and a new chapel has been built on a high point on the island.  Work to build new infrastructure and leisure facilities have led to the island becoming a centre for employment in the area.

A spokesman for The Tanera Mòr Restoration Project previously explained the work, stating: “The plan for Tanera Mòr is over a period of six years to restore and regenerate the physical ruins and structure that was inherited when the project started in April 2017.

“Key to this endeavour is the creation of a vibrant community which is renovating Tanera Mòr and with this creating substantial opportunities for local community regeneration in an area where these types of opportunities were hard to find and rarely of scale.

“There is currently a team of over 100 people employed on the project full time. This project respects the natural beauty and tranquillity and history of the island.”