A derelict historic fortress which lay empty for 17 years has been transformed into a ready-made party island – complete with its own nightclub.
Thorne Island was once home to up to 100 officers manning a 19th century Napoleonic fort to protect nearby Milford Haven, which was then a major naval base on the Pembrokeshire coast.
It was converted into a hotel in 1947 and hired out for birthday parties, weddings and stag parties, before being sold in 1999.
Despite proposals to reopen a hotel at the site, complete with a new cable car to the mainland, it lay empty and overgrown for 17 years until former software CEO Mike Conner snapped it up for £555,000 in May 2017.
Now, after five years of painstaking renovations – which saw building materials delivered via helicopter – the island can be yours for a cool £3 million.
Extending to almost 2.5 acres, the island boasts panoramic coastal views and over 8,000 square foot of accommodation, with a helipad and a nightclub.
Mr Conner, who hosted a festival there for his 50th birthday, hopes whoever takes it on enjoys the island as much as he has.
He thinks it has huge potential to operate as a tourist attraction or, with no neighbours to disturb, play host to "the most unbelievable raves".
Mr Conner said he envisaged the site offering an "unbelievable 24-hour experience", with the potential to host about 800 people.
He told the BBC “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into” when he took on the major project.
"There was no electric, no water, and any food or waste needed to come back off," he said.
"My wife was pretty cross when I first said I bought it, she said she would stay once it had a flushing loo, which is pretty reasonable."
The cost of reaching that milestone was £200,000 after he discovered he needed to cut through 16ft of rock to get to a biodigester pump.
Workers stayed on the island in two-week shifts while renovations were carried out, using a generator to charge their phones and washing in the sea.
Now the project is complete, visitors are welcomed to a grand entrance hall leading into the large open plan reception, dining and sitting room with exposed traditional brickwork, vaulted ceilings, double aspect sash windows and wood burning stove, according to its listing with estate agents Strutt & Parker.
The kitchen is open plan with a modern, equipped kitchen and adjoining snug with wood burning stove, exposed brick work and sea views. It currently has five bedrooms, sleeping up to 20 guests.
Being completely off grid, it also boasts a range of renewable energy systems including a PV Solar display with 100kwh battery storage, air source heat pumps for hot water and underfloor heating and a 250,000-litre rain harvest system.
