Here’s something to think about while we’re doing the dishes, or waiting in the rain for the bus.
If we were lucky enough to have our own private island – like Leonardo DiCaprio, Richard Branson or Johnny Depp – what would we want to have on it?
Maybe a yellow sand beach with some seaweed covered rocks and a few seals?
Or a labyrinth of underground tunnels that may or may not stretch beneath the sea to both Devon and Cornwall.
Or perhaps a matching set of 25-ton muzzle-loading cannons designed to keep the French out, and abandoned 16th-century army barracks now home to seagulls, cormorants, owls and bats.
Drake’s Island, steeped in history and today sparkling in the sunshine in Plymouth Sound
Jane Fryer visited Drake’s Island, named after the explorer Sir Francis Drake, who set sail from here in 1577 to circumnavigate the world
Well, if that’s all your thing, then you’ll be very happy.
Because Drake’s Island, steeped in history and today sparkling in the sunshine in Plymouth Sound, has it all.
And, as fate would have it, the island — named after explorer Sir Francis Drake, who set sail from here in 1577 to circumnavigate the globe — is for sale. Sellers Carter Jonas won’t name a price, but are inviting bids.
For your money, you get a 15-acre slice of history, 30,000 square feet of Grade II-listed abandoned military buildings and a slew of underground tunnels and cellars. There’s also planning permission to turn the whole thing into a luxury tourist destination – plans that could set you back around £30 million.
And as I step off the ferry from Plymouth and walk across the rickety jetty with owner Morgan Phillips, I’m almost won over — by the pristine sea, churning with seaweed. The thick, springy grass growing on the volcanic tuff and lava. The wild lupins, flowering blackberries and buttercups. Even the “NO ENTRY” sign makes my heart race a little.
It’s like an Enid Blyton Famous Five adventure meets modern day history.
No wonder Morgan, a former naval engineer who bought it for £6m in 2019, loves it so much. ‘I always feel different when I’ve been here. It’s special,’ says Morgan, who now works in security systems and is kindly showing me around today. ‘You’ll know what I mean when we leave. You’re touched by it. There’s something special about it.’
But if you’re looking for total solitude, this might not be the island for you. Because according to a stream of very excited mediums, psychics and the crew of Time Team, the island has a hidden extra — unmentioned in the glossy sales details — its own community of military ghosts.
The most notable of them, Morgan tells me, is Regimental Sergeant Major Mark Beresford, who served here in the 1850s and haunts the lower storehouses — deep tunnels where the ammunition was stored — even though he didn’t actually die there. (About 25 others died here when it was a military prison in the 17th century.)
“He’s apparently very nice and not scary at all, but he’s a stickler for detail,” Morgan says. “So I’ll sometimes say, ‘Good morning, sergeant major!’ when I come down to the basement, just to be polite.”
The others, believed to be the spirits of long-dead soldiers, are far less honorable.
Jane meets the island’s current owner: Morgan Phillips, a former naval engineer who bought the island in 2019 for £6 million
Drake’s Island was used as a prison by Charles II in the 17th century and played a crucial role in the defence of Plymouth against French and Spanish invasions.
“A few women have said they feel strange things when they tour the cellars,” Morgan says. “Apparently they like to have someone snuggle up to their neck and stroke it.”
Damn. But maybe ghosts—or tall tales about ghosts—are normal when you buy an island with a history so rich it’s hard to pick out the best bits.
The fact that it was used as a prison by Charles II in the 1600s and played a crucial role in defending Plymouth from French and Spanish invasions. That Queen Victoria liked to sketch it. That a young JFK Jr learned to sail here in 1971. Or that it was a key defence against the Nazis in World War II.
Some locals, including Chris, the island’s muscular maintenance man who has a giant tattoo of Pocahontas on his upper left arm and a passionate interest in the Catholic military order of the Knights Templar, believe it is much older.
“Plymouth Sound is where Britain began!” he says, waxing lyrical about ley lines, Templar churches and druids.
“This is one of the most spiritual places in the world.”
Perhaps, but Morgan has far more practical plans for what he often calls the “jewel in Plymouth Sound.” Since 2019, when he bought it, much to his wife’s dismay. “We disagreed for a while,” he says. “Although she’s a tour guide here now.”
In his Navy days he sailed past Drake’s Island and got lost in its mystery and history. Suddenly it was his and he had big plans. And, more importantly, a building permit and the funds. Today, as we stand on the rickety, rusty landing pad, he is pink and wistful as he talks me through his dreams.
A 43-room hotel with luxury accommodations, a swimming pool, café, spa – what private island in the world doesn’t have a spa? – event space and a gleaming glass elevator on the site of the old, dilapidated boathouse.
There would be tidal turbines on the seabed generating energy. Perhaps even a handy helicopter landing pad on ‘Little Drake’, the rocky outcrop at one end of the island.
It sounds great, it would cost £22 million and take three to five years to complete.
The picturesque island was also an important line of defense against the Nazis in World War II
If you buy the island, you will get a piece of history of over six and a half hectares, 2,700 square meters of abandoned military buildings that are listed as monuments, and a lot of underground tunnels and cellars.
But then came the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and sky-high interest rates, and Morgan’s investors pulled out.
As a result, he had to become very entrepreneurial, running history tours, nature tours, yoga tours, ghost tours, every kind of tour he could think of. But the £500,000 this brings in each year barely covers the costs.
He must be devastated that he had to put it up for sale, and he’s still praying that an investor will come along at the last minute to help him realize his grand vision.
But according to Ali Rana, who is handling sales for Carter Jonas, there has already been a huge amount of interest, locally and internationally. And they all have their own plans, from a private residence to a yacht club to reviving Morgan’s dream of a hotel.
Morgan wouldn’t be the first owner to try to develop Drake’s Island and fail.
The previous owner, businessman Dan McCauley, bought it in 1996 and spoke endlessly about his ambitions for the place.
In 2017, after a seven-year battle with local authorities, he finally got a building permit. But then he got sick, the grass
grew to a height of 90 cm and birds nested in all the buildings.
Before that, between 1967 and 1989, it operated as Drake’s Island Adventure Centre. Visitors slept in Nissen huts and I would have given my left arm to have an adventure there.
Many locals would do the same. Because even though they could see it clearly for decades, barely half a mile across the Sound, they weren’t allowed to go there.
“But of course we did,” says Chris, who grew up in Plymouth. “I used to sneak up here.” He wasn’t the only one.
In 1957 a group of schoolboys ‘invaded’ the island and claimed it for Plymouth. They were arrested by the warden, who gave them bacon sandwiches and brought them back to the city in time for the maths double.
And in 2005, a group of anti-nuclear activists briefly established a peace camp and declared the island a nuclear-free state.
When Morgan bought it, he was determined that it should be accessible to everyone.
That is why he organised an open day in March 2020 for the benefit of the local hospice.
“We advertised it on Monday – for about a hundred visitors – and on Wednesday the website crashed because we had 535,000 signups.”
It was also Morgan who brought in film crews for advertisements, photo shoots and an Indian film company.
And the ghost hunters. At first just for fun, but then the Time Team crew went deep into the warehouses and had a terrifying night.
Footsteps going nowhere in the darkness. A video of the ghostly Regimental Sergeant Major in the dark, “like a bear in a cloth cap, huge and hairy and all lit up,” Morgan says.
As we go down to have a look, Morgan warns the photographer: ‘Watch out, the ghosts are playing with your kit.’
At first, the tunnel network is quite overwhelming.
Cold and oppressively dark in the central open spaces, where Morgan tells us: ‘This was going to be an event space — we tried it with a small jazz ensemble and the acoustics are great,’ he says. ‘Or the wellness centre.’
And even though no one tickles my neck or pushes me, I still feel relieved to be in the sun again.
I should add, however, that my digital recorder strangely went crazy and recorded only a strange hissing sound the entire time we were down there.
So we head towards the eastern end of the island, looking for whales, dolphins and seals.
And we wonder who will buy this special place and whether they will make Morgan’s dreams come true.
Even if I had the £30 million I wouldn’t be there.
But I’d go back in a heartbeat, although I’m not sure I’d run straight to the spa in the basement.
