REPORTERS travelled from as far away as France to join the people of Ulva on the day they took control of their island.

Rebecca Munro and her children Matilda, seven, and Ross, four, cut a ribbon declaring the island officially open to the whole community of North West Mull.

As we reported in yesterday’s National, the community has formally taken ownership of the Hebridean isle, just over a year after a campaign began to secure it for the local people, and after the Scottish Government stepped in with a £4.4 million grant to help buy it from landlord Jamie Howard.

The National: