If you’re the fitting candidate, Richard Irvine provides you with his enterprise and prepare you to run it. He’ll hand over his keys, clients and secrets and techniques to smoking fish — all free.
The catch: You must decide to residing on a distant Scottish island referred to as Colonsay. Inhabitants 125.
There’s already international competitors for the place.
Mr. Irvine, 65, established the Colonsay Smokery in 2022 and has been constructing the enterprise with the intention of giving it away, he stated in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Curiosity within the giveaway has been excessive, he stated, and he has extra candidates than he anticipated. He hopes to decide on a recipient by midsummer.
“I’m getting masses and a great deal of inquiries from folks I’d name dreamers and schemers,” Mr. Irvine stated. “One simply got here from St. Lucia now, whereas we’re speaking,” he added a couple of candidate from the Caribbean island nation.
Mr. Irvine has additionally obtained dozens of inquiries from candidates and information media requests from Italy, Spain and america, amongst different locations, because the BBC in Scotland wrote in regards to the supply on Monday. “How I’ll filter these out, I do not know,” he stated.
In a world torn by wars and financial struggles, the concept of life on a distant Scottish island might maintain attract for lots of people — even when it entails smoking fish for a residing. Colonsay, Mr. Irvine stated, is a good place to flee the hustle and bustle of big-city existence.
The island is off the west coast of Scotland within the Atlantic Ocean, about 20 miles from the mainland, and is reachable by ferry. It’s about two miles vast and 10 miles lengthy, with sandy seashores, scenic paths, a golf course, a bookshop, a number of eating and watering holes and an area publication, The Colonsay Occasions, which comes out seasonally, as soon as within the winter, spring, summer season and fall.
The final time the island made worldwide headlines was when The Occasions of Britain revealed in March that an Irish banker accused of fraud had evaded the regulation enforcement authorities for a few years by adopting a brand new identification and residing as a builder on Colonsay, beginning round 2012.
The banker turned builder was “a very charming chap,” if not a lot of a craftsman, Mr. Irvine stated, however he “simply disappeared.”
The smokery challenge emerged from a plan gone awry.
Mr. Irvine and his spouse, Pru Irvine, who honeymooned on the island, had been planning an early retirement on Colonsay as soon as their youngest son, who has a studying incapacity, was residing independently. However the pandemic derailed their son’s plans and Ms. Irvine stayed with him on the mainland, south of Edinburgh, whereas Mr. Irvine labored on their home on Colonsay.
He turned conscious about an issue plaguing the place he loves. “We simply want extra younger folks,” he stated.
There are about 75 folks over age 65 and about 45 working-age folks with a number of youngsters, he stated. There are few inexpensive properties on Colonsay and never many roles, making it tough for the group to draw new households.
A number of retirees volunteer with the group improvement firm to work on the housing problem, so Mr. Irvine thought he would do his half by creating an financial alternative. He describes himself as a “serial enterprise creator” who has labored in building, as a chef and as head of a branding consultancy.
However Mr. Irvine had by no means run a fish smoking enterprise when he launched into the creation of the Colonsay Smokery with help from a Norwegian seafood firm, MOWI, that has a salmon farming enterprise on the island and agreed to provide him with fish at a preferential charge. MOWI, which has additionally been concerned in native housing improvement efforts, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Mr. Irvine says he spent about 50,000 kilos — round $65,000 — on the challenge, reviving an deserted farm, getting a license and studying to filet, remedy and smoke fish. Making ready the product is a five-day course of that entails prep and fileting, pin boning and drying, smoking, slicing and packing.
He sells his merchandise domestically, to high-end delis on the mainland and by mail order. He says he has earned his funding again and might hand over the smokery for free of charge to “somebody who doesn’t have £50,000” however longs to have his or her personal enterprise.
There are particular traits he thinks the best candidate ought to have. The individual would most probably be half of a younger skilled couple or household, with one companion working remotely from Colonsay and the opposite operating the smokery.
“It’s a giant leap to take,” he admitted.
Nonetheless, he stated, there are rewards.
“I like waking up and seeing nature,” he stated, “however I additionally like going to the pub and standing by the person who does the bins” — as in amassing the rubbish — “on equal footing.”
