Our Bags are packed and (most) ferry tickets are booked. We will be taking off this afternoon for a four week tour of Scotland in a motorhome, the one below in the picture. It's all very exciting since we've never done this before! We have planned to visit the Outer Hebrides, the entire west and north of Scotland, Aberdeenshire, Islay, Orkney and Fife, not necessarily in that order.

Our home for the next weeks

This means that I will take a long break from blogging, the longest break since the blog started exactly six years ago. We will be back in the second week of June. In the meanwhile you can stay up to date with Islay news through the Islay Daily Newspaper, and there is of course a huge archive with almost 2,000 blog posts! Don't forget to download the latest "What's on on Islay", it includes a four week list of events as well as the Islay Festival programme. All the best for now, we hope to see some of you on Islay or elsewhere in Scotland.

Tag: holiday motorhome

Mark Reynier, MD of Bruichladdich Distillery, talks about sustainable energy and his Nissan Leaf which is powered via the BioWayste system that generates electricity from the distilleries' waste products. Enjoy!

Tag: bruichladdich nissan leaf video

This summer on Islay we’re seeing an innovative new project - Comunn na Gàidhlig are coordinating a project involving 5 high schools in the Highlands and Islands where, for the first time ever, pupils can gain a John Muir Award in Gaelic. 4 Islay High School pupils have been working on this since the beginning of the year, focussing on Loch Gruinart as their ‘wild place’, an area known both for its abundant wildlife and its fascinating history. The John Muir Trust has been offering these Awards since 1997. They’re designed to involve fun and adventure, with creative ways of exploring, understanding and conserving our environment, encouraging teamwork and sharing. It’s a great way of exploring the outdoors, being creative, building confidence and teamwork.

Lauren MacGregor, Caitlin Marrion, Heather Hope and Mairi McGillivray are working together with staff at the RSPB reserve at Gruinart, and Morvern McPhee of Islay High School is mentoring and providing language support. They will each work towards giving a guided tour for Gaelic medium families on Islay before meeting up with students from high schools in Portree, Inverness, Mallaig and Ardnamurchan at a 3-day residential at Tulloch near Roy Bridge in June. Continue reading...

On Tuesday 24th April the Islay birdwatching club officially opened the brand new hide on RSPB’s Loch Gruinart reserve. It couldn’t have been a better evening; with beautiful weather, home baking, entertaining calves, active wildlife, and a whisky dram for all.

Islay birdwatchers in front of the newly opened hide at Loch Gruinart

The new hide was built with funding from Argyll & Bute Council through the Landfill Communities Fund, and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The cost of the path leading to the hide was funded by the EU through Interreg IVA. Thank you to those funders for making the hide possible and to everyone who turned up for the evening.

Please come and visit the reserve and see the view from the hide for yourself. There’s plenty to see; the spring flowers are all blossoming, the calves and lambs are investigating their new surroundings, and of course the birds are all busy gathering food and nesting material for their families.

Tag: rspb bird hide loch gruinart

I found a photo compilation this morning on Youtube of the Islay and Irish rowing crews getting ready to pillage whisky in 2003. Besides views of the rowers, Port Ellen and other images I noticed a nice picture of someone sitting on a yellow submarine holding a USSR flag. Enjoy!

Tag: video pillage yellow submarine

Now that the 2012 Tourist Season is in full swing, even more so with the Feis Ile coming up in a few weeks, you can expect regular PDF downloads on this blog with all the activities listed by day on Islay titled "What's on on Islay".

The initiative for the "What's on on Islay this week" was started in 2009 by the Islay and Jura Marketing and Tourism Group. Up until last year Maggie Woodman provided the weekly updates but Maggie retired from her B&B so it was time to find someone else to create the weekly programme's. Since it wasn't easy to find someone and it was a too good initiative to stop I myself have volunteered to provide this year's weekly PDF's to which the Marketing Group agreed. So from this week on I will do my best to collect information about activities on Islay and this is where I will need some help from the locals as well. If you have an Islay event or activity you want to see listed please contact me through the blog's Feedback Form, thanks very much!

The weekly PDF's will be available on the ferries and with most accommodation providers on the island and it's available for download from this blog's download section. For a direct view look for the What's on logo in the left-hand column. Due to my upcoming holiday the next PDF will most likely contain information for a longer period.

Tag: activities pdf download

Today I'm taking you on a virtual tour to the neighbouring island of Jura. Niall Colthart was kind enough to sent me ten breathtaking images of a trip he made yesterday up the Paps of Jura. In between the pictures you can find Niall's comments. Niall: The initial intention was to see how far up the highest Pap, Beinn an Oir (the mountain of gold) I could get my bike as the ground here is fairly dry at the moment. When I arrived at Port Askaig the cloud was completely covering the Paps and I seriously considered plan B which was a cycle out to Bholsa. The forecast was for an improvement so I decided to head over anyway and was glad I did. It worked in complete reverse to my last trip to Beinn Caolais earlier in the year when it was clear right until ten minutes from the summit when it clouded over, this time it cleared as I went.

Beinn Caolais

With a few detours I headed for a part of the hill normally hidden from view on Islay which is the ridge on the north side of Beinn an Oir. This ridge ascends in a gradual sweep around Loch an Oir with the only steep bit the final few hundred feet. Having ditched the bike earlier with a view to making a circular route, and after a bite to eat and some photo’s on the summit I descended down the right hand scree gully. This gully is fairly steep, especially the entrance and is full of loose scree for its full length. It is a dramatic spot with cliffs rising sheer on either side, the Garbh Lochanns at the bottom and the best aspect of Beinn Caolais (the hill of the narrows) ahead. After that it was a quick trip back to the bike and an easy and fast run down the track to the ferry.

Hydro Dam at Inver

On the way up I spoke to one of the workers at the new hydro dam which is being built on Inver Estate. Although cosmetic work is still being carried out on the dam it is due to be handed over on Monday and will be producing electricity shortly afterwards. The water levels in the Glenastle Lochs (the two lochs will become one large loch as the glen is flooded) are still very low and there was still a normal flow of water down the river system. Following handover and as part of the tidy up phase of the project the road which has been put in to facilitate the laying of the large water pipes will be completely reinstated to its natural pre-contract state. Continue reading....

The Scottish Society for Northern Studies, a society founded in 1968 to explore the relationships between the Scandinavian, Celtic and Scottish cultures, invited all 'Ileach’ readers to an evening of free talks on Islay landscape and heritage in the Round Church, Bowmore on Thursday evening 12th April. Attending the evening of talks were 50 or so conference delegates, joined by the 'Ileach’ and a few other Islay people. The event’s organisers made us very welcome to attend as much of the conference’s weekend program as time allowed. Malcolm Ogilvie set the scene with an illustrated lecture on "Islay’s Landscape and Natural History", followed by John Barber’s engaging discussion of "Islay’s Prehistoric Settlement Patterns"; and Margaret Storrie spoke on "Islay Settlements and Society over the Past 300 Years".

The conference theme was 'Islay: From Gall to Gael and Galloglass’ and talks were focused on settlement and society in Islay during the Middle Ages. However, the short lectures presented covered archaeology, history and folklore of Islay and other Hebridean islands, and also of other areas connected by the seas of the North Atlantic. The opportunity to hear talks by scholars and researchers on Islay’s early history and its links with the Norse through to the time of the Lordship of the Isles is not often available locally, and this was an outstanding occasion for those of us interested in learning more about Islay’s past. Continue reading