Paradise Loch

On a Remote Island Off the West Coast of Scotland That Inspired Peter Pan, Vanessa Branson Transforms Her Personal Sanctuary Into an Idyllic Hotel and Retreat for All.

- Gisela Williams

THE ENTREPRENEUR Vanessa Branson has a habit of transforming vacation houses into evocative—and perfectly turned-out—hotels. In 2002, when she was looking for a holiday retreat in Marrakech, she happened upon the courtyard of a former private residence. Two years later, she opened the renovated space as El Fenn, one of the chicest riad hotels around. And now Branson is reimagining Eilean Shona, a remote Scottish island she purchased decades ago, as a dream destination for guests hoping to escape the harshness of modern reality.

Branson discovered Eilean Shona in the mid-1990s with her then-husband, Robert Devereux, when they were searching for a holiday home in the Inner Hebrides. “We answered an ad and drove six hours out of our way to see it,” recalls Branson, whose brother is Sir Richard Branson. Originally the site of an 18th-century hunting lodge, the island has an illustrious history—the author J.M. Barrie spent summers here in the 1920s and wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of Peter Pan while staying on Eilean Shona—and was home to a gabled manor house and a scattering of charming cottages. Visitors arrive by boat from the mainland, passing by the ruins of a medieval castle.

“It’s hard to describe how beautiful it is here,” she says. “It might, in fact, be Neverland. There is no ambient light, so the night skies are just brilliant, and no noise pollution, so all you hear is nature. When the tide comes in, one part of the island turns into a blue lagoon.”