Bear Grylls and his wife, Shara, purchased St. Tudwal's Island West in North Wales in 2001 for £90,000, turning a derelict, off-grid island into a family retreat.
The £90k Island Purchase
In an Instagram post, the survivalist revealed: "At 25, just married, we bought a small, abandoned, off-grid island from an ad in the back of a magazine. It cost us £90k. There were many who thought us crazy. The best adventures often start with nay-sayers. Thank you, Shara, for being brave and saying yes!"
Speaking with The Times in 2024, Bear, 52, said he and his family split their time between a penthouse in Battersea Power Station, the island in Wales, and a property in Switzerland.
Transforming the Derelict Island
Of St. Tudwal's, the TV star said: "The island had a 200-year-old lighthouse and two lightkeeper's cottages, but [the houses] were derelict with no power, no water, no roof and rats."
He recalled: "I remember my first bath sitting in three inches of water pumped from the old tanks we'd cleaned out. There was rubble everywhere and rain coming through, but it was a great moment."
After the purchase, Bear and Shara, who share three sons, transformed the lightkeeper's cottages into a four-bedroom property.
Getting Supplies and Family Life
Asked how the family gets supplies to the island, Bear said: "We have a Sealegs amphibious rigid inflatable boat. It took about 10 years to gain permission to build a slipway on the island, and we finished it about 3 years ago."
He added: "It has been life-changing for us. Previously we had to keep a boat on a mooring, row ashore and walk a mile up the beach with all the shopping. We have wild, wild seas, and when it got rough you wouldn't sleep thinking about what would happen to the boat."
Bear also noted: "We also have an old RNLI D-class lifeboat. The boys have grown up very competent and respectful around the sea. We have a quad bike and trailer to get supplies up to the house."
In a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair, Bear said entertaining on the island is difficult: "We keep it very private, and generally it's just [my wife] Shara and our three children. We do sometimes have friends to stay, but only one family at a time, and they need to be up for an adventure and prepared to get stuck there if the weather turns."
Bear has repeatedly called St. Tudwal's his "favourite place on the planet" and referred to it as his "spiritual home" on social media.
