There hasn't been much news about the Islay Hotel in Port Ellen while construction is making good progress as you can see from the image. Roland sent out a mailing today with a proposal to timeshare’ a Penthouse flat within the new Islay Hotel in Port Ellen.

Roland: We would offer 30 people this opportunity. You would commit to the same week every year for 5 years, choosing your weeks between April and October. If for any reason you couldn’t use your week, you could offer it to friends or exchange your week with other ‘owners’. You could choose to buy more than one week or you could share the 5 years with friends or family each taking it in turns and sharing the cost. As a further option, the hotel could rent your week for you. We want to offer as much flexibility as possible. Continue reading

There are a few bits of information available here and there about bike hire on Islay and it's time to post an update on this blog. I have based my information on the two people on Islay that should know all about this subject. The first one is Jim Lutomski from Port Ellen and the other one is brian palmer aka mr Islay cycling. If I have forgotten to mention anyone in the following overview please send me an email.

So where can you best rent a bicycle? Of course it depends on where you stay. From what I've been told there are four addresses on Islay. One in Port Charlotte run by Polly Mather, one in Bowmore at the Post Office in Main Street and there are two bike hires in Port Ellen. The Port Ellen Playing Fields have a couple of basic bikes and there's Jim Lutomski who runs a bike shop aka bike hire and has quality bikes, see image right. Below is an overview of bike hires on Islay. Continue reading....

The new Distillery Tour Times Leaflet for 2010 is available for download. The leaflet consists of two pages and provides information about the Jura and Islay Malt Whisky distilleries opening hours, the tour times, phone and fax numbers, email addresses and other important information. It is therefore essential to take a copy with you when you visit Islay and/or Jura. This leaflet is also available in the Tourist Information office and other places. Some distilleries have changed, read prolonged, their opening times to meet the demands of the visitors. Another interesting detail is the specialised tour offered by most distilleries. I think it was Bowmore that started the Craftsman's tour and most distilleries now offer similar specialised/premium/VIP extended distillery tours, a must for the real enthusiast!

To download the distillery leaflet right click with your mouse on the image and select save target as... to save the guide on your local hard drive. To view the distillery leaflet directly click on the image and it will be opened in your browser window from where you can save a copy too. More interesting PDF downloads can be found in the download section.

Tag: distilleries tours leaflet pdf

The Islay and Jura Tourism and Marketing Group are continuing with the very successfull visitors' welcome evenings in 2010. These welcome evenings take place on Monday nights at eight, starting in April to the end of October, and will be held on different locations on Islay, but mainly at the distilleries. This years first welcome evening will be held at April the 5th at the RSPB Loch Guinart and the last one will take place on 18 October at Bowmore Distillery.

The evenings are presented by someone from the marketing group and very much worth visiting, even for those who visit Islay regularly. Admission is free. I have attended one of these evenings at the Bunnahabhain distillery back in 2007 and it turned out to be a heart warming evening. We started off exactly at eight (try to be there in time) and the room was quickly occupied by more than 25 people. The evening started off with a highland dance, followed by a young lad playing the bagpipes. After these two performances someone from the RSPB gave a slideshow presentation about Islay's wildlife which was very interesting. The presentation lasted almost 45 minutes and the evening ended around 9.30 with a raffle, a dram and a delicious clootie dumpling. If you want to attend one of the visitors' welcome evenings you can find the times and places in the Ileach, the fortnightly local newspaper for Islay and Jura, on the Ileach website or in the Islay Weblog events calendar. I have also created a PDF file for your convenience containing all the 2010 dates. This file is available from the download section or by clicking here

Tag: welcome evening activities pdf

The following video was uploaded only moments ago and had zero views so far. Time to change that! Four guys went to Islay, had a great time and made a nice video accompanied with some old fashioned rock music from AC/DC. The song is appropriately titled "Have a Drink on Me". Enjoy and crank up the volume :-)

Direct Link to this video on www.islay.tv

Tag: video

Tonight an old fashioned picture blog. Claudio Riva, webmaster of www.laphroaig.it, active member of the “Slow Food” movement, Italian and Islay enthusiast sent me images from his trip to Islay, in the first week of March. Besides beautiful wintry scenes there is a touch of spring in his images and you can see the progress on a couple of building projects such as the almost completed exterior of the Islay Hotel and the new silo's at Port Ellen Maltings. Claudio sent many more images which I will post later.

Snow on the Paps of Jura

Continue to the other images

First time visitors sailing to Islay are often greatly impressed by the imposing baronial mansion which commands the hilltop overlooking approach to the ferry terminal at Port Askaig. This is, of course, Dunlossit House, the island home of billionaire merchant banker and landowner Bruno L Schroder. Originally a shooting lodge, it was converted into a more grand residence in 1868. The property was purchased in 1890 by Donald Turner Martin of Kintour who married Iseabella Martin Gilmour from the planned and now highly protected village of Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire. Unfortunately, the building was destroyed by fire and this led Martin to build the current Dunlossit mansion. Continue reading...

When one of the two village stores in Portnahaven closed, no not Alister Redmond's shop annex post office but the other one, there was an opportunity to use the free space for something else. Opposite this former village store lives Flora Hutton, former midwife, or auntie Flora as she is known locally. Auntie Flora decided, with her 70 years old or more, that she was much too young to do nothing all day. I have been told that auntie Flora is a special woman which explains the fact that she started a new business on her age. Her new shop in Portnahaven is named Bo Frois which is gaelic for rainbow. From what Carl Grootjes told me, shop is perhaps not the best description for this new venture. It's true, you can buy sweets and local crafts but more important you can have a pleasant conversation with a good cup of coffee or tea and homebakings, kindly provided by Auntie Flora's neighbours. I have also been told that for the sake of Auntie Flora's nerves, it's better not to come in with a busload of people at once but apart from that it's a wonderful establishment and a great addition for Portnahaven and the visiting tourists. Continue to more images....