Islay neighbour Colonsay
Tuesday, April 24 2007
When you're on holiday on the Isle of Islay you also have the opportunity to visit some of Islay's neighbours being the Isle of Jura and Colonsay. The Isle of Jura can be reached by taking the ferry from Port Askaig crossing the Sound of Islay to enjoy a day out on another Hebridean jewel. Colonsay is accessible by taking the Calmac ferry from Port Askaig. The ferry to Colonsay from Islay is scheduled for Wednesday's only and this is the only day that the Oban Ferry to Colonsay will travel onwards to Kennacraig. This gives visitors from Islay to Colonsay the opportunity to stay there for six hours and discover the island. The ferry leaves Port Askaig around 10am and returns from Colonsay around 6pm but make sure to check the calmac timetables to be on the safe side. In the wintertime, October to March, Colonsay is only accessible by ferry from Oban. In the near future Colonsay is hoping for a scheduled flight service between Oban and the new Colonsay airfield which should operate twice daily during three days per week. For those who wish to stay longer please use the link below for an overview of accommodation on Colonsay.
Colonsay is inhabited by a little more than 100 people and is located only 15 miles from the south tip of Mull, north of Islay and west from Jura. The island has a school, one hotel, a shop and post office, a tea shop and a 18 hole golf course. Scalasaig is the main settlement on the Isle of Colonsay and home to the only port on the island. Colonsay offers magnificent views towards the neighbouring islands when the weather is clear and Colonsay is mainly known for its beautiful nature, wildlife, cliffs and lovely remote beaches. Kiloran Bay in the north-west is most famous and can be compared with Islay's Machir Bay. The highest peak on Colonsay is the Carn an Eoin (143m), locally referred to as one of the 22 MacPhie's. A MacPhie is the Colonsay equivalent of a Munro and has to exceed 300ft (91.46m). Furthermore the Colonsay House and woodland gardens are worth visiting. The woodland garden is considered to be one of the finest rhododendron gardens in Scotland. South of Colonsay is the Isle of Oransay which is accessible by foot at low tide.
Colonsay doesn't have its own whisky distillerie(s) like Islay and Jura but recently a new brewery opened on the island and it turns out to be a huge success according to an article at thisisnorthscotland.co.uk. In the first ten days the Colonsay Brewery sold 4,000 bottles of beer which is quite a lot if you consider the island has an adult population of 90 people. The article doesn't mention if all the bottles were emptied in these last 10 days but if so it would come to 4,5 bottles per adult inhabitant per day.
A quote:
Mr Johnston, who lives in North Berwick but spends a lot of time on the island, is planning to sell the brewery's products on the mainland. He established the new venture with Colonsay men Keith Johnston, who is managing the enterprise, and brewers Rob Pocklington and Chris Nisbet. He said: "It's so difficult in a place like Colonsay, where the freight charges are such a nightmare. "It makes everything so expensive and you can never compete on prices. "We wanted to come up with a quality product which would lend itself to the image of Colonsay's natural environment. The water here is fantastic and there is a lot of it, so we are not going to run out of it. It is part of the product and we don't have to bring it on to the island, although we do have to bring in everything else."
The £80,000 project was awarded £20,000 in grant aid from Argyll and the Islands Enterprise and the brewery is housed in a new building, constructed by the enterprise company, near the island's village hall and the pier. The brewery, which was officially opened by islander Dougie McGilvray, 98, at a ceremony attended by about half the island's 120 population, is establishing a "beer to the pier" service. It hopes to tap in to the market of the day trippers who arrive via Caledonian MacBrayne's Islay-Colonsay service every week during the summer.
Further information is available at:
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