John Lennon’s Former Island Up for Sale
A small island off the west coast of Ireland that once belonged to John Lennon is up for sale. Business Week is reporting that Dorinish Island is currently on the market for 300,000 euros, approximately $384,000.
Lennon bought the 21-acre spot in Clew Bay, known to locals as "Beatle Island," for $2,700 in 1967, most likely with the intention of eventually building a place to live after his retirement. “I hope we’re a nice old couple living off the coast of Ireland or something like that -- looking out at our scrapbook of madness,” he told Rolling Stone in 1971.
Of course, Lennon never got the opportunity to see that dream realized, but he revisited the idea, and the land, shortly before his killing in 1980. “About a year before he was murdered his London solicitor inquired about reviving the planning permission which he had obtained shortly after the purchase,” said Michael Browne, a local who showed Lennon around the area at the time. “He was constantly panning a cine-camera to get a panoramic of the bay.”
In 1984, Yoko Ono sold the land to farmers, who are now looking to off-load the property in their old age.