An island in the Falklands is up for sale, complete with its own penguin colony, more than 6,000 sheep and the longest sandy beach in the archipelago.

If it sounds like heaven, then that's because it is, says the great-great grandson of the man who bought the island 150 years ago.

Sam Harris, from Pembrokeshire, can remember holidaying on Pebble Island, so-called because of the glass-like pebbles found on the beach, as a child.

It has been owned by his family, Dean Brothers Ltd, since John Markham Dean bought Pebble and a few neighbouring islands in 1869.

The island is an International Bird and Biodiversity Area thanks to the 42 species of bird which call it home
John Markham Dean bought Pebble Island in 1869

Now, the family are looking to sell it to the highest bidder as they are no longer able to manage the island from the UK.

"There are tens of thousands of penguins," said Mr Harris.

"I used to spend hours watching them, from burrowing and inquisitive gentoos to rock hoppers bouncing up and down the cliffs."

The island boasts five different species of penguins and is a bird-watchers haven with 42 breeding bird species, making it an International Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA).

"It's an incredible place, but it literally couldn't be further away," said Mr Harris.

"It's too much work to keep going."

The island has a working farm with over 6,000 sheep and a herd of cattle
An idyllic life for a sheep
Some of the islands' inhabitants

At 20 miles long and around four miles wide, Pebble is the third-largest offshore island in the Falklands. It has a four-mile long white sandy beach, craggy cliffs where sea lions take shelter, and a mini mountain range.

Currently managed by Mr Harris' mother, Claire, she says it will be a real wrench when it comes to the sale.

Mrs Harris said: "People have been waiting for Pebble Island to come up for sale for many years. It’s really impossible to know how much the island will sell for as it’s the first time it’s come up for sale in 150 years next year, so we have no idea.

"A foreign person would have to offer a substantial amount more than a Falkland Islander for us to accept it. In many ways we would love a Falkland Islander to buy, whether that will happen we don’t’ know.

"It could be someone involved in the sheep business or a farmer, someone who buys the wool or someone who wants to improve tourism or anything really."

As well as a thriving sheep farm, Pebble Island has a number of lodges to serve a growing tourist industry, 125 beef cattle to supply the island's market, and a wind turbine and solar panels to generate the island's power. The island is the only one where the mineral rights belong to the owners.

It is also the site of the first land based action of the 1982 war, when the SAS landed by boat at night to disable the 11 Argentinian aircraft on its grass runway.

The island is 20 miles long and only 4 miles wide
There are 2 war memorials from the Falklands War
Supplies are brought in by boat and seaplane

It came into the Harris family after Mr Harris' great great grandfather, John Markham Dean, went over to the Falklands and set up a ship salvage company after a few years of working in butchery.

"He ended up with a few of the islands but they've been sold off along the years and we have Pebble left, but it's too much work to keep going," explained Mr Harris.

Mr Harris has visited the island with wife, Lowri, and will cherish the memories from his childhood playground.

The couple met during their studies at Cardiff University, and moved to Pembrokeshire with their two young children in 2018.

Their bedside table is a piece of Pebble history: an old oak trunk used by his great grandfather (John Dean's son) George Dean, to take his belongings between the UK and Pebble every summer holidays in the late 1800s.

It was a boat journey that took two weeks each way.

The chest used by George Dean to ship his belongings across to the Falklands which is now a bedside table for Sam Harris
Sam and Lowri have been out to visit
Tourists and visitors can stay in several self-catering lodges on the island
It's the perfect place if you like sheep!

"If it could talk, I'm sure it could tell many, many stories," said Mr Harris.

John Markham Dean travelled to the Falklands with his wife Charlotte

In the old days, supplies used to be delivered by seaplane, which landed on one of the ponds, and parcels were often thrown from the aircraft if there were no passengers to land. Now the plane lands on the grass airfield or in very wet weather, the long sandy beach.

In addition, the supply ship Concordia Bay visits the island with supplies every 6 weeks.

The island is a 45-minute plane journey from Stanley, the capital and largest town of the Falklands archipelago.

Mrs Harris says she doesn't yet know how much she should ask for the island and any foreign buyers will need a government licence before snapping it up.