The sights of Islay Thursday 12th June

After a lovely stay in our "friendly" B&B we set off to tour the island and see the sights.  Before we left, John asked what we were going to do all the time, as you could drive around it in one hour, and it is not big.

Well, wrong, the island is very large indeed, and sort of comes with two halves.  It is 16 miles to my aunt's home from the town, and it must be a bit of a popular place with those who enjoy riding motor bikes, because there are long straight roads, a bit bumpy in place, as they are built over peat bogs.

We firstly went to the small ferry crossing the channel, and saw....an otter!  Never before.  Apparently there is one otter for every mile of coastline around the islands.  The island is home to heaps of unique birds, not that we saw any, as you would have to be walking to places to do that.

The Paps of Jura

Remote, but not the end of the world!

Somewhere in the channel was the otter

They have most of their call outs in the channel 

The ferry came in and a semi unloaded, took up all the ferry space

After a quick chat to the couple on duty at the marine rescue, the next stop was a woollen mill. It was old, and still had equipment from the past.  Unfortunately the wool was very coarse and not local.   They would have preferred to work with New Zealand or Australian wool, but from the packing boxes some of the yarn came from China.  The end products produced were just too rough for my liking, but perfect if you need protection from the very cold elements.

As old as me!

The mill must have worked with a water wheel in the past

We were aiming for the Museum which was quite a long way down the western side of the island at Port Charlotte.

But first we had to take a photo of the cows walking, and eating on the green verge of the shoreline.

We passed lots of sheep sunbaking on the algae on the beach, and fields of beautiful little ground orchids, which I had read come up in June.

The museum was packed with very interesting pieces, including a story of my elderly cousin.  She was the last person to operate the switch board when it closed in 1974.  

Life was certainly different, as we know, 

Ships bell

During WWI two troop ships were wrecked, and there were so many people who died.  Along the coast there are more than 400 ship wrecks.  Another casualty of the war was a flying boat.

Life stared here in the thousands of years ago, and these finds are from the Vikings, I think.

Household life was also so different, just imagine pushing this pram around the rocky roads!

This is written by my g.g.g. grandmother or my gg.aunt cause there were two Mrs Donald Gillies.

The museum is set in an old church, surrounded by the headstones, and with a magnificent view over the Loch.  Perfect place for a museum.

Complete with guns!

We made our way down to Portnahaven for lunch, but the pub was closed as they were at a funeral, which we had passed along the way.  But the area had a natural harbour.  

Back to town again, and to Port Ellen for lunch, then we had an hour to waste before the airport, so we had a quick look at the Bowmore Whiskey shop.  I thought I might order a couple of bottles, but when I saw the price I decided not to.

I had bought John a bottle for Xmas, and it was interesting to see the price they sold it for. 

At the airport both my aunt and cousin came to say goodbye, or to make sure we left, one or the other!

Seriously, it was a wonderful stay, and I am so happy that I have been able to have marked another item off my "bucket list".  This one was something that I never imagined possible.  My memories will be long, and thank you all.  Everytime we look at the Laophraoig we will remember my Scottish family.