NOVEMBER 13, 1967 – John Lennon purchased islands off the Ireland coast for £1,700 and invited any hippie who wished to live there. Lennon bought Dorninish (twin green mounds linked by a natural causeway), lying just 15 minutes from the west coast of Ireland and got planning permission, although he never got as far as building. Previously used by sailing ships for its stones, the island became a place of peace for Lennon and his family. He shipped in a multicolored caravan and took both his wives there, but after his divorce from wife Cynthia, the island went unused at the height of Beatlemania. Lennon wasn’t ready to settle into his island retirement and so he offered it out, rent-free, to “King of the Hippies” Sid Rawle and Timi Walsh to establish a commune on the island in 1970.
