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Comment by shawabawa3 | Hacker News Reader

Seems pretty clear cut to me.

Outsider buys property on tiny island community, then disappears for 8 years. Islander gets annoyed about the vacant property blocking their view so decides to remove it. Other islanders refuse to rat them out due to being a tight community

End of mystery

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"Islander gets annoyed about the vacant property blocking their view"

Could well have been a vacant ruin after 8 years without any maintenance - we live in an exposed site half way up a hill in Scotland and I wouldn't leave our house for 8 weeks without arranging for someone to keep and eye on it and potentially getting repairs done.

That was my thoughts too. Go look up Tory Island on google maps - most of us would very quickly redefine our understanding of 'exposed'.

everything is within "walking distance", it's approx 2 miles long.

Photos from Tory Island: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Tory+Island,+Co.+Donegal,+...

Moved to Ireland about 5 years ago. The western coast is reputed as being hit by the worst weather and I assume an island in the northwest would be the worst possible place in terms of weather.

I'll go you one further.

Outsider visits island for a few months and enjoys their time there, makes some great friends. Outsider's friend has a hotel, and wants to attract more clients. Outsider has a knack for storytelling, but hasn't been successful for a few years.

Outsider spins yarn, friend fills up his hotel, both walk away happy.

End of mystery.

There are a million ways to fill in the blanks. We can't know _the truth_. I find this upsetting, and it'll bug me for days. but then I'll forget and it's ok.

Your pat story is fine too. I REALLY want to know the truth, which is a fantastic hook. so I'm stuck with this story longer than you are.

Given that he won in court, he was presumably at least able to establish that the house existed at one time, and he owned it, so it’s unlikely to be totally fictitious.

There would be a record in the land registry, with a map.

Even if the house disappeared he would still own the land. Given that it was a very basic house it's likely the land was worth at least as much as the building.

>> Even if the house disappeared he would still own the land. Given that it was a very basic house it's likely the land was worth at least as much as the building.

Don't underestimate the cost of building stuff on an island like that. Everything needs to be brought in by boat, including labor.

For sure. An uncle of mine used to own property on Mackinac Island [1] that he wanted to build a home on. After years of trying to find a way to manage it, he gave up and sold: it was just too far beyond his budget (he is fairly wealthy).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_Island

>> Even if the house disappeared he would still own the land.

Not always. So-called Ground Leases are common in many parts. The tenant owns the house but the landlord owns the land and collects rent from the building owner. I'm not clear of exactly what type of ownership rights this person had over the house let alone the underlying property.

Ground leases in Ireland used to be common, but they're transferrable and can generally be converted to freehold for very little money, so they don't have a significant impact on costs. That said, land on Tory Island is presumably ~worthless anyway.

A lot of it probably won’t be above water in the next hundred years, so I’d seriously advise against investing in property there.

There’s probably some lessons here about good headlines to draw you into a story via social media. Or if you go deeper the value of stories/fiction that were entirely invented in the first place, or documentaries about real things combined with the limitations of an hour and a half plus the biases and editing of the creator, or the podcast medium which lets you go even deeper into a topic, etc.

There’s plenty of angles here in a meta way beyond the sum of the real story itself.

But I do agree this is most likely going to be an unrewarding investment with a likely simple explanation like the hotel wanting views + very old basically vacant building in the way.

This tight community also did have to accept a high loss to the value of their properties as their houses became unsaleable. It is a mystery to me how all property owner would accept this, when only one or two have an improved view.

Places like these are usually populated with people who have lived there their whole lives and plan to spend the rest of their lives there. The cost of the house, to them, isn't a monetary one, it's more a matter of community and sentimental ownership.

Imagine you're retired, you own a house on an island where you like life.

Why do you care if your house is "worth" $50k or $1m?

Maybe you don't have kids to inherit it. Maybe you consider yourself at home where you're living, so you wouldn't want to sell it anyway.

Have you had that conversation with many people who are retired in comfortable positions? I've had it with many family members (Apparently I'm the one who is "good with money things"), and they all _do_ care, despite the fact they will never realize that value.

You only care if your kids aren't planning to live there. In small, isolated communities it's common to hand property down (much like farmland) rather than sell.

In those cases the cost of the property is more academic as the real value is the community and any sentimental elements (eg "my grandfather built this"/"5 generations of kids were born in this house", etc)

No, I don't know anyone in that position.

If you're in the UK, that house is probably the main way you are going to fund decent care in a care home in the last 5 years or s of life. You'll care

The article mentions that the damages awarded by the judge wouldn't suffice to even buy a chicken coop on the island. My guess is that property prices are quite unaffected by this stunt.

I don't get how you draw the connection between a not satisfying damage award and unaffected house prices.

Maybe the real reason why nobody spoke out was the fact that the guy flattening the house was Tory’s biggest employer. The hotel Óstan Thóraigh has been at the centre of island life since the late 1800s. The hotel and general store was supplying everything from salted fish to marine chandlery to the island.

The hotel is for sale now. It didn't survived Covid. See https://www.irishpost.com/news/irelands-stunning-tory-island...

The article is from May 01, 2019. Covid didn't exist yet.

Yes I'm afraid they're trying to Wicker Man this up to 11. Basically some bollocks half knocked down his house.

"The House that got partially knocked down by someone with small regard for abstract property rights".

That's not how to use the word "bollocks".

In Ireland we do say bollocks or Bollix meaning a person who broadly speaking is difficult to deal with.

Ah OK thanks I had no idea. I gladly accept my downvotes!

Not in England, no. But it is in Ireland or Scotland.

OK thanks I didn't know and deserve my downvotes!

Maybe it is in Ireland.

It even says he got a letter about storm damage. If the roof got messed up in a storm and noone came to fix it in two or three years why not just knock it down.

Usually its a story of continued decline. House has rain water damage (roof caves in), village teenager break into house, one of them sets it on fire. Ruin ruins next door neighbours view, nobody willing to clean it up, so he does the work for free.

Ok but you have to start civil proceedings to do so.

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