Little Cumbrae, which lies in the Firth of Clyde off the north Ayrshire coast, has been put on the market for offers above £3m.
Rich property buyers looking for a retreat from the rat race are unlikely to find anything more exclusive than the 684-acre island 23 miles from Glasgow.A London estate agent is offering prospective buyers the chance to buy the ultimate status symbol complete with its own 12-bedroom Victorian mansion and 13th-century castle.The island, which lies in the shadow of Great Cumbrae and is a 10-minute boat ride from Largs, also boasts a centrally situated lighthouse with three keepers’ cottages, built by Robert Stevenson, which replaced the open fire beacon.The current owner, Stephen Worrallo, a businessman who bought the island two years ago, has decided to put it on the market with the aim of selling it to either somebody looking for a secluded retreat or someone wanting to explore the development and tourist potential of the island.Glenn Hickman, spokesman for the Mayfair-based HHL Humberts Leisure, the agent dealing with the sale, said Little Cumbrae offered a rare opportunity as British islands were very rarely sold on the open market. She’s going to have to at least look like the habit has gone.”Part of Moss’s allure has been her refusal to give interviews or comment on stories about her life. She lost the H&M contract despite reported pleas from her friend Stella McCartney, the designer whose clothes were featured in the campaign.Industry experts said that pressure was now increasing on Moss to break her silence and issue a public apology. The designer Zandra Rhodes said: “She can’t be seen to condone the use of drugs.

She said: “Kate Moss has a contract until the end of October. The contract finishes at the end of October and we don’t have any projects with her.”Moss had worked with Burberry since 1998 and Chanel since 2002, and the loss of two six-figure deals with high-end brands will come as a severe blow to her profile and earning power. But, after announcing that it would give her a “second chance”, H&M issued a statement saying Moss’s actions were “inconsistent” with the company’s anti-drugs policy.In a statement released last night by Burberry, the company said: “At the current time we had one project scheduled with Kate for this autumn and in the circumstances both Kate and Burberry have mutually agreed that it is inappropriate to go ahead.”We are saddened by her current circumstances and hope she overcomes her problems as soon as possible.”A spokeswoman for Chanel denied that the model had been sacked. In an indication that she may be made an example of, Sir Ian said that he believed it had been a mistake to allow an unnamed celebrity in a previous case to walk free on a caution.The specialist crime directorate at Scotland Yard is investigating after pictures were published in the Daily Mirror purporting to show Moss snorting cocaine at a recording studio with her boyfriend Pete Doherty and his rock band, Babyshambles.Moss, 31, was earning more than £4m a year from contracts with Chanel, Burberry, Christian Dior, the make-up giant Rimmel and the jeweller H Stern.When the grainy images first appeared last week, the companies either refused to comment or said they would stand by her. Predictions that earlier shows of support for Moss would collapse domino-style if one company decided to sever ties now appear to be accurate.Burberry and Chanel announced the end of their deals with Moss just hours after the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, said that any decision to prosecute her would take into account the effect that she has on “impressionable young people”.

Burberry also announced that it is to cancel a planned advertising campaign featuring Moss in the wake of the photographs and other lurid stories about her personal life.
The loss of two lucrative contracts in one day follows a decision by the high-street store H&M on Tuesday to scrap a forthcoming campaign featuring the model. Travelling over the Kent and Keer channels – the “deep channels” described by the prosecution, which fill with water and cut people off from the shore – the jurors stepped off the hovercraft on to the cockle beds where the Chinese worked and died. They also visited Priest Skear, the area of rocky sand where the only cockler to be rescued was spotted.The trial continues.. Burberry and Chanel have become the latest companies to drop Kate Moss after the publication of photographs that allegedly show the model snorting cocaine. A three-year contract to promote Chanel’s Mademoiselle perfume ends next month and will not be renewed, the firm said yesterday. That signpost was in place on the night of 5 February 2004, while others reading “danger, beware fast-rising tides” have been erected since. Lin Liang Ren’s cousin, Lin Mu Yong, 31, from Liverpool, denies facilitation, as do David Anthony Eden, 62, from Irby, Merseyside, and his son David Anthony Eden, 34, from Prenton, Merseyside.During the visit jurors, accompanied by barristers and the trial judge, Mr Justice Henriques, were shown nearby towns and landmarks, along with a rickety signpost warning about “quicksand and fast-rising tides”.

The 29-year-old, from Liverpool, denies 21 counts of manslaughter, perverting the course of justice and conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration.His girlfriend, 20-year-old Zhao Xiao Qing, also from Liverpool, denies perverting the course of justice and facilitation. A further two bodies have never been found.The prosecution claims the “negligence” of the cocklers’ alleged gangmaster, Lin Liang Ren, who the court heard failed to get his workers off the sands in time, was to blame. It said: “Someone could effectively lose the ability to do their job .”. The jury in the case of five people on trial in connection with the Morecambe Bay cockling disaster have visited the scene where the tragedy unfolded.