And so the time has come to begin the process of leaving Tanera. As I write in early May, the island has just been launched onto the open market. It has been a sad and difficult decision, but it is one that we always knew would have to come, and we have had plenty of time to prepare.

Last autumn we approached the mainland community of Coigach to see if they would like to purchase the island under the ‘Community Right to Buy’ legislation. They were grateful for the offer; although we are the only ones living here now, the community has very strong ties with the island: an amazing number of people in Coigach have spent time living on Tanera, or have ancestors who did.

However, after a lot of thinking and talking, and a feasibility study by an external consultant, the community decided that they couldn’t take it on. The local community development company is already immersed in lots of other interesting projects – alternative energy generation, and the purchase of the former Summer Isles Smokehouse building – and Tanera (as we know only too well!) is a serious undertaking. So: to the open market it is.

But why are we leaving? Mundane reasons I’m afraid: I own the island with my two brothers who live in the south of England with their young families, and although they love coming up here, it is time for us all to move on with our own individual projects. Tanera is a wonderful home, but my parents never intended it to be our family home forever.

Then there’s Rosie, who is very happy (well, she knows no different) to climb down pier ladders onto bouncing boats whilst strapped firmly in a rucksack. But as she gets bigger and wrigglier, things will become more difficult. And if she comes by a sibling, life will be trickier still.

There have been plenty of other island babies over the years – at one time there were around 20 children on the island’s school roll. But back then there, despite life without our modern luxuries being more difficult in many ways, there were lots of families to share the challenge of child-boat management. Not so now.

We had been expecting a little ripple of media coverage about the sale – a couple of small items on page 12 of local papers perhaps – but we were astonished to find our lovely home beaming from the front page of The Times (Scotland edition), top of the ‘most read’ listings on BBC and Guardian websites, featured on national radio and even reported in the southern hemisphere.

It seems that, whereas 800 acres of mainland Scotland would change hands without a bat of a media eyelid, an island captures the imagination. As readers of these pages will concur: an island is a special thing. We hope someone will come along and care for this lovely place as we have.

But it’s not over yet. I imagine there will be many months (and so several more columns) before there are any deals struck. In the meantime we will keep an eye on the Eider and Greylag ducklings, and enjoy our island home.

This article first appeared as a column in the magazine Scottish Islands Explorer.