Islay is a jolly island
Sunday, March 18 2007
Paul McHugh wrote an interesting article in the San Francisco Chronicle about his trip to Jura to follow the footsteps of George Orwell, the writer of 1984
Comparatively, Islay is a jolly island, with eight of Scotland's best single-malt distilleries and a half-dozen towns. The atmosphere tends toward the misty and cool, but the local people supply a tart and pleasant warmth. "Oh, we don't think of you as lodgers," joshed our innkeeper, Rachel Whyte of Glenmachrie. "Lodgers, you see, just get a room, then they come and go as they please. To me, you're guests. You are taken into our family. And then you must do as you're told."
After 9 miles, we reached the town of Craighouse, which holds Jura's only hotel, pub and store. Another 21 miles brought us to the end of the pavement, where we met descendants of the Fletcher family that had leased Barnhill to Orwell. We had hired them to take us in a four-wheel drive Land Rover the final 5 miles of boggy track. We could have hiked it, but by the time we completed that round-trip trek, we would've missed the last ferry back to Islay.
An interesting and well written story to read with a lot of background information on the Isle of Jura and George Orwell's books. And yes, Islay is indeed a jolly island!
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