An award-winning store and post office in a remote north-west Sutherland village has gone on the market at an asking price of offers over £235,000.
Drumbeg Stores, which overlooks Loch Drumbeg, gained the Best Village Shop In Scotland Award 2006, and it is now being offered for sale, along with the post office on the premises and a 100-year-old three-bedroom cottage.
The current owners, Brendan and Ann Butler, took over the business in May 2004, and Mr Butler yesterday said they had since doubled the turnover.
He said: “Put simply, our philosophy has been to provide an interesting and affordable alternative to supermarkets for the community-minded, with fewer food miles, Fair Trade and organic products, Highland produce and a large variety of fine food.
“We’ve taken it up-market and it has expanded to the point where it is impossible to do justice to the business and give our daughter, who has Down’s Syndrome, the attention she needs.”
But the couple, who moved to Drumbeg from Edinburgh, are not planning to leave the village.
Mr Butler said they intended to stay in a nearby house that they own and will be on hand to help and advise the new owners, if required to do so.
The closest shops are in the village of Lochinver, which is 14 miles away, so the store is well used by locals and tourists, including the many walkers, climbers, naturalists, bird watchers and fishers who visit the area.
Mr Butler said they were very pleased to be voted the best village shop in Scot- land in a national competition organised by the Countryside Alliance in conjunction with Farmer’s Weekly and The Daily Telegraph, in 2006.
The property is now being sold by Murray, Beith and Murray, of Edinburgh.
Sandy Burnett, who is one of the partners in the company, stressed that the post office was exempt from closure.