RESIDENTS of Ullapool in Wester Ross have been gifted a local island by the RSPB.
They will take over the historic Isle Martin which lies four miles from the village at the mouth of Loch Broom.
The 400-acre island, named after St Martin, a follower of St Columba, has been run as a bird sanctuary.
However, after a national review of RSPB priorities, it has suggested a community scheme as the best way forward for the island.
Isle Martin is currently uninhabited, although there are four houses there, and the ruins of an ancient chapel.
There is no mains electricity or telephone but it does have a natural water supply from a lochan.
The island has colonies of tern, guillemot, fulmar, and divers. In the past 15 years, it has been planted with 10 hectares of native woodland as part of the RSPB's conservation work.
A meeting, attended by a cross section of the community, agreed to continue talks with the RSPB about taking over the island and setting up a steering committee to promote a community trust.
Local councillor David Green said yesterday: ``This is a tremendous asset for the community to have.
``It is a gift after all, and it is far better that local people run the place rather than have some foreign buyer coming in and preventing visitors from landing there.''
It would be fitting that Ullapool forged such a close link with Isle Martin since it was the island's success as a herring fishing station in the nineteenth century which led the British Fisheries Society to begin building Ullapool's new port in 1788.
The herring have now vanished but Ullapool has flourished as a terminal for the ferry to Stornoway and as a tourist destination.
RSPB reserves manager Peter Mayhew said yesterday: ``In the past four or five years, we have been carrying out a national review of our conservation priorities and Isle Martin was not considered to be of national bird importance.
``In considering the future management of Isle Martin, we have been very keen to see local community involvement.''
Oriole Goldsmith, from Cumbria, whose late mother Monica gifted the island to the RSPB in 1981, is supporting the plan, he said.
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