Incredible ‘fantasy’ island home looks like the perfect getaway – but locals say they wouldn’t live there for £1million
THIS STUNNING island home would be the perfect retreat – if it didn’t ‘flood every spring’.
Located in Ynys Groad Goch in North Wales the home looks like the perfect place to relax until the tide starts to rise.
A photo shared this week showed the horror owners would have to deal with.
Water was edging up the flood walls barely stopping it from damaging the property.
The Island between Anglesey and Gwynedd at high tide is divided by the water isolating the properties on there.
The Island had been an ideal fishing spot for families for over 400 years until it was turned into a rustic holiday let – and is privately owned.
Locals claim they ‘wouldn’t live there for £1million’.
One woman said: “That would have me climbing out onto the roof.”
Another local added: “I enjoy solitude but I wouldn’t live there if they paid me a million quid a day.”
The Island is steeped in history and is one of the best-preserved of twenty fish traps built in the Menai Strait.
The island includes stone weird and a fish-smoking chamber built in 1824 according to NorthWalesLive.
Stone Weirs were built to trap fish – fish would swim over the stones during the high tide and become trapped behind the stones when the tide goes back out.
The properties on the island used to be used for fishing until 1959 and at its peak would trap huge amounts of fish – and sometimes humans.
It was reported in 1937 that a teacher from Bath named Margaret Phillips, 25, was sucked into a gully because she failed to hear people shouting warnings – due to her wearing a bathing cap.
After its fishing heydey, it became a get-away property and welcomed famous guests such as renowned portrait artist Ishbel McWhirter.
Until the mid-1990s the house’s electricity relied on a 12-volt car battery and residents had no fresh water.
Once a new substation and 740 metres of cable were installed providing the place with hot water for the first time and a brief spell as a holiday let – it was dubbed ‘fantasy island’.
When the photo was taken earlier this week the water level was close to peaking – and was higher on the following three days.
The highest tide recorded in the strait was in February of this year when water levels reached as high as 11.2 metres.
High enough to completely swamp the two properties on the Island.
One local insisted he would have a boat on standby or ‘sleep in inflatable armbands’ if he lived there.
However, descendants of the fishing families who used to live on the island say their house was flooded yearly when the spring tides came.
He wrote on social media: “But they knew when to expect it.
“They took the precaution of moving upstairs.”
Another commenter explained how the house was built to withstand the flooding.
He said: “All the ground floor is red quarry tiles.
“All the skirtings downstairs are concrete.
“There are sump pumps that empty the ground floor completely of water once the tides recede.
He added: “All they have to do is rinse all the floors with fresh water and it dries within a couple of hours.”
