Most newlyweds save up for a flat. Bear Grylls bought an island with a crumbling lighthouse, no electricity and no running water. More than two decades later, the island is still off-grid and fully functional. A 2021 study in the International Journal of Renewable Energy Research modeled a similar wind-solar-battery setup for an off-grid home and found that steady power depends on carefully matching the size of the turbines, panels, and batteries to each other. Long before off-grid living became a trend, Grylls had built his own version on a rocky patch of Wales.
An island cheaper than a London apartment
In 2001, newlyweds Grylls and his wife, Shara, were searching for a flat in London. The cheapest place they found cost £200,000. In an account he gave at the time, Grylls said he had also come across a rundown houseboat in Battersea for £100,000 and this same island off the coast of Wales for £150,000, and figured that if he could talk the island's owners down to £95,000, he could offer his wife two homes for the price of one. His idea worked. The island is St Tudwal's Island West, lying off the Llŷn Peninsula near Abersoch in North Wales.
