What Would it Take to Put You in an Ailsa?

John Garrity's delightfully droll website tips me off to a wonderful piece on Ailsa Craig, the uninhabited island of the Ayrshire Coast, in the paper of record.  No, not the New York Post, I'm actually linking to a piece in the New York Times...mark this date on your calendar.  The piece in fact dates back to last November, but I can't be faulted as John posts so infrequently that checking in every 60 days is typically sufficient.

The table-setter:

This stunning volcanic island has been part of Scottish legend for a thousand years, its sugarloaf profile decorating Scottish bank notes and memorialized in a Keats sonnet. 

For those not familiar with Ailsa Craig, it forms the backdrop for virtually all pictures taken on Turnberry's Ailsa course, one of the most picturesque golf courses on the planet.  It is also the subject of a well-worn adage, to wit that if you can't see Ailsa Craig, it's raining.  And if you can see Ailsa Craig, it's about to rain.  Not exactly going out on a limb in our beloved Scotland....

Ailsa Craig has one additional claim to fame:

It has no inhabitants, no electricity, no fresh water and no arable land — nothing of value, it would seem, but for this: For a century and more, its quarries have been the source of the distinctive, water-resistant microgranite used to make most of the world’s curling stones. These include all those used in recent world championships and the Olympics, including the Sochi Games that begin in February. 

Two views of Ailsa Craig, from the hotel, above, and the course, below.

The property is being offered by its current owner, The Eighth Marquess of Ailsa (you'd have to make it up if there weren't such a title), who is dealing with changing circumstances:

Like many of Britain’s old landowning families, the marquess’s family has been through decades of retrenchment as a result of inheritance taxes. It lost the family seat, Culzean Castle, to the National Trust in 1945, and in 2010 the current marquess decided to part with Ailsa Craig, posting an initial price of $4 million. That figure was later cut to $2.4 million, and as the waters of the Firth of Clyde have lapped at Ailsa Craig’s rocky shore each day, little has changed in the intervening years. The island remains misty, monumental and for sale. 

I know all about the problems of British nobility, as we're current with our Downton Abbey viewing.

My favorite aspect of the piece is the byline, London Bureau Chief John F. Burns.  Owner of two Pultizers, Burns is one of the most distinguished foreign correspondents in the world, and spent most of the Iraq war providing the best reporting available from Baghdad.  The curling stone beat seems somewhat beneath Burns' qualifications, but do click through and enjoy it along with the slideshow provided.  And, spoiler alert, you'll be shocked to learn that the Marquess finds curling to be dreadfully boring.