Islay Guide Foreword by Alastair Borthwick

Last Wednesday I posted the first image from a new series based upon an Islay guidebook from the 1970s, supplied by Keith who is a regular reader of the blog. He was also kind enough to type over the foreword of this Islay guide to show you how the author, Alastair Borthwick, described Islay in the 1970s. It's a lovely and well written foreword and after reading it you might come to the conclusion that many things have remained the same in all those years.....

Alastair Borthwick Even at the height of the holiday season when there is scarcely a spare bed on the island, it is possible to walk miles without meeting a living soul and to choose a beach which one may enjoy in complete solitude! This is the point about Islay. It is accessible, yet there is room for everyone. Islay is no place for people who enjoy crowds and commercialised holidaymaking; it is a place for those whose pleasures come from unspoiled countryside. There is an excellent golf course on the island, and at Port Ellen there is a wide variety of entertainment every night in the village, dances, shows by visiting artistes and ceilidhs in the Hotels. The sailing club holds regattas every Wednesday during the summer months. Port Ellen boasts fine playing fields, tennis courts, pitch & putt and football pitches, and has done much to cater for the visitor. The Caledonian MacBrayne ferry boat comes into Port Ellen and folk still stroll down to the pier each evening to see the ferry and fishing boats come in. People return year after year to Islay not because it lays on entertainment for them but because it is a beautiful and immensely varied island where they can also make entertainment for themselves. Continue reading......

Roughly speaking, Islay is twenty miles square; but within this relatively small area it has scenery of many different kinds. It has nearly two hundred miles of roads, so anyone who owns or hires a car may sample all of it; or, by using the bus service, visit all but the most inaccessible spots. Most families swear by the place of their choice – one of the villages, a farm perhaps, one of the many hotels – and tend to stay put from the beginning to the end of their holiday: but it is worth while to move about a little and see the extraordinary variety of the island.

Many holidaymakers, especially those with young families, say the sandy beaches are the most memorable aspect of Islay. Port Ellen, population around a thousand and the biggest town, has one literally on its doorstep; but almost everywhere round the coasts there are others, some tiny and secluded, others great sweeps of silver a mile, or even several miles, in length. The biggest and most popular might have a dozen families on them at the height of the season, but many of them are relatively deserted even in summer.

By contrast there are the cliffs, especially those of the Oa where the Peregrine Falcon and the Eagle can be seen, and of the far western coast of Sanaigmore. To be there on a day when a big swell is coming in from the Atlantic and breaking against them is a major experience. Here, too, there are vantage points where seabirds nesting on the cliffs can be seen at close range, with Fulmars balancing on the updraught and seals hunting far below.

Another contrast is the sheltered coast facing the mainland, where at Kildalton there are palm trees growing by the shore and there are little rocky bays, each with its lick of sand. Or again there is sea-fishing by boat on Lochindaal, or laying a fly over the nose of a trout on Loch Gorm or Loch Ballygrant, or exploring the hills between Port Ellen and Port Askaig. There is also the fact that on Islay, history lies near the surface: one does not need to be an archaeologist to marvel at the ramparts of Dun Nosebridge, built with who knows how much labour before Scotland was a country; or to appreciate the superb thousand-year-old cross at Kildalton. Islay is a place where the non-specialist, if he cares, may find new interests. Pre-history, geology, plants, birds are all so lavishly displayed that it is hard to ignore them.

But to most people Islay is a spot in the ocean where the sand is silver and most of the landscape is as God made it, a peaceful place, very beautiful, where holidays grow naturally out of the soil. It is not much good at fairgrounds and promenades and shows on the end of the pier, but it has the simple things. And where else can one find the simple things today?

Tag: guidebook