Two Brothers Built a £60 Million Castle Here. Then the Island Voted

In September 1993, two brothers paid £2.3 million for a 74-acre rock off the coast of Sark, the last feudal island in Europe. They built a £60 million granite castle on it. Fifteen years later, Sark held its first democratic election, voted against them, and around a hundred islanders lost their jobs in a matter of days. This is the full story of Sark: a fief granted by Elizabeth I in 1565 to forty families and an armed man from each, an island that survived pirates, a silver-mining bankruptcy, five years of German occupation and a one-man invasion in 1990, and then met Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay. From the steamers and the Dame of Sark to the castle on Brecqhou, the end of feudalism in 2008 and the island that is left today. Chapters 0:00 Two brothers, one rock 2:29 The castle across the water 3:07 The island nobody wanted 5:39 Silver, debt and the first sale 6:33 Steamers and the Dame of Sark 7:57 Occupation 9:31 The one-man invasion 10:07 The Sark Lark 11:05 A summer on Sark 12:33 The Barclays arrive 14:19 Buying the island 15:41 The election 16:35 The long withdrawal 19:31 Sark today 22:47 The view from the cliffs Sources NBC News / Associated Press, "Tiny Channel island wins democracy, loses jobs" (December 2008) Jonathan Parry, "Life on Sark", London Review of Books, vol. 45 no. 10 (2023) ITV News, "Barclay family reopens businesses in Sark" (July 2022) Guernsey Press, Sark census results (September 2023); "Seigneur gives up right to treizième" (December 2006) Bailiwick Express, Sark electricity prices (September 2019) International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, "Nominee directors" (2012) Did your family ever cross to Sark? Tell us when you went and what you remember most in the comments. #Sark #ChannelIslands #BritishHistory