UK island and hotel made famous by Agatha Christie up for sale – for £15m

Purchase includes 25-room art deco hotel where famed author stayed

(Channel 4)

A UK island and hotel made famous by Agatha Christie is now up for sale, for the cool asking price on £15m.

Burgh Island in south Devon comes with a 25-room art deco hotel, 14th century pub, a tennis court, helipad, spa and ‘mermaid pool’.

The eight-hectare isle off the coast of Bigbury-on-Sea was the famous mystery writer’s favourite holiday spot, so much so that the location was the setting for not one but two of her best-loved novels: And Then There Were None and Evil Under the Sun.

Connected by a causeway to south Devon, the island is walkable from the mainland at low tide, but is only accessible by sea tractor at high tide.

(Channel 4)

The sale inlcudes the beach house built for Christie as a writer’s retreat, The Pilchard Inn pub and the Burgh Island Hotel, bought by Giles Fuchs in 2018 and lovingly refurbished.

“Having watched the hotel be reborn, survive the pandemic, and continue as a wild and beautiful oasis for visitors from across the world, I believe now is the time for me to step aside and allow a new chapter to emerge for Burgh,” Fuchs said in a statement to CNN.

“The sale includes the 14th-century Pilchard Inn as well as the hotel, which remains an important part of Devon’s history and I am excited to see what the future holds for this much-loved property.”

Many original Art Deco features remain at the hotel, giving a sense of the 1920s glamour experienced by Christie when she stayed.

Facilities include two restaurants (one fine dining and the other more casual), plus a saltwater pool, spa, tennis court and helipad.

The hotel has played host to numerous famous guests other than Christie, including the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the Beatles, and is even rumoured to have been the venue where US President Dwight Eisenhower met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill before D-Day.