“If once you have slept on an island
You’ll never be quite the same”
… poetic words made famous by Rachel Lyman Field
nearly 100 years ago aptly describe the magic that overcomes so many after spending time on an island.
As a native and former year-round resident of Martha’s Vineyard, I well understand this indefinable sentiment that can’t be bottled or sold. Just riding over on the ferry or a private boat, you know life will be different: the world slows down, and critical factors soften, things smell better, the sky seems bluer. There’s an unspoken camaraderie among those on an island, whether they are known to you or not, like the wry smile when sharing that secret handshake. Island services are often lacking or non-existent, and perhaps therein lies the magic. One comes to appreciate and often revere the natural forces beyond your control, like surf pounding the rocky shores, the wind whistling in the tall spruces or the night sky that delivers more stars and planets than you ever imagined.
“Oh! you won’t know why and you can’t say how
Such a change upon you came,
But once you have slept on an island,
You’ll never be quite the same.”
Rachel Field wrote those eloquent, knowing words, about her visits to Sutton Island, the location of Talley House, and she surely understood.
These island properties range from elegant, restored cottages, to bungalows and rugged promontories of land.
Something for everyone.
Faraway | Greening Island, ME | $6,600,000
Talley House | Sutton Island, Cranberry Isles, ME | $975,000
Fish Point | Great Cranberry Island, ME | $1,550,000
Whale’s Ledge | Frenchboro, ME | $1,950,000
New to Market: Swans Island Head | Swans Island, ME | $1,600,000
For more information about these or other island listings in the Mount Desert Island and Downeast areas, please contact Story Litchfield in our Northeast Harbor office, 207-276-3840.