Bootleggers’ Whiskey Island on sale for £2 million

An island once used by bootleggers to smuggle whiskey into New York during Prohibition has gone on sale for US$3 million (£2m), appropriately named Whiskey Island.

Credit: Valadi Private Islands

The 3.1 acre island sits in the Saint Lawrence River, which leads from Lake Ontario in Canada and into New York State. Its was originally named Coral Island due to the maze of shoals that surround it. However it attracted the name Whiskey after it was used as the main “drop and run” point for “rumrunners” pushing illegal booze across the Canadian border and into New York and the US during Prohibition, which lasted 14 years from 1919.

Because of the deep-water docks, shoals and rocks that surrounded the island, it was easy for bootleggers to hide, and later recover, their smuggled liquor. To this day, divers can be found exploring the shoals surrounding Whiskey Island to try and dig up any lost liquor.

Today it is home to a completely renovated main lodge, built in 1875, with eight bedrooms, four bathrooms, a commercial kitchen, a family room, a library/office, as well as a two-bedroom guest cottage, a new two slip boathouse, deepwater docks and swim deck. Accommodation on the island is available to rent with rates starting from $8,500 for a week stay or $1,250 per night, with a minimum stay of four nights.

The island is on the market with Vladi Private Islands for $3,000,000, who said its sale represented a “rare opportunity for the purchase of island property”.