ELLE DECOR 67

T

HE ENTREPRENEUR

Vanessa Branson has a

habit of transforming

vacation houses into

evocative—and perfectly

turned-out—hotels. In

2002, when she was look-

ing for a holiday retreat

in Marrakech, she hap-

pened upon the court-

yard of a former private

residence. Two years

later, she opened the ren-

ovated 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 Heb-

rides. “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 cot-

tages. 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.”

The exterior

of the main

house, an

18th-centur y

hunting lodge

with Victorian

additions.

Branson in the upstairs

hall of the main house.

The ceramics on the

custom console are antique

toby jugs, and the drawing

is by William Kentridge.

The walls are in Farrow &

Ball’s Arsenic, and the arch

interiors are in Pelt.

The kitchen’s hood is

custom, and the table

and chairs are vintage.