The tiny coastal island of Eilean dà Mhèinn sits in peaceful Loch Crinan, just 100 metres of crystal-clear water separating it from the village of Crinan and its bustling harbour of little sailing boats.

Spanning just over seven acres, with a cluster of towering pine trees overlooking its rocky shore, and a single whitewashed house at its heart, it is perfectly positioned in an area designated by planning experts as Very Sensitive Countryside, and within Knapdale National Scenic Area.

Few might blame anyone lucky enough to live in such glorious surroundings from wanting to make the most of this corner of heaven on earth.

But plans by the island’s owner to construct a garden room in its secluded glen, described as a “magical hollow” tucked between two walls of rock that cut through the south of the small island, has brought tensions bubbling to the surface and unleashed a flood of objections seemingly at odds with such a small building.

Next Friday Argyll and Bute Council’s planning committee will gather at the council’s Kilmory headquarters in Lochgilphead to consider a proposal for a garden room at Eilean dà Mhèinn.

Swirling around it are almost 130 comments from objectors and supporters – a significant number for such a small community – almost split straight down the middle between those who support it, and those vehemently opposed.

Unlike most planning rows that tend to prompt so many to put pen to paper, the design of the small garden room itself is not the biggest problem. Intended to reflect its natural surroundings and constructed using locally sourced wood to help it blend in, its woodland cottage style could have fallen straight from the pages of Grimms’ Fairy Tales.

Already scaled down following objections, according to the island’s owners – who in 2016 became just the third to own the island in seven decades – it is intended as a quiet retreat to write, create and for visitors to freshen up.

Instead, what has irked objectors is the recommendation from council’s planning officials that it be simply rubber stamped for approval – in direct conflict to the authority’s own planning policies drawn up to protect and control development in some of its most precious landscapes.

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