Isle of Jura - Island of Deer Isle of Jura A Guide to the Southern Inner Hebridean Isles of Argyll Isle of Jura – Island of Deer The name Jura is believed to come from the Norse meaning ‘Deer Island’ although it is also said that Jura got it’s name from an earlier language. In Gaelic the word ‘diura’ itself means ‘tough, or durable’. Early writers speak of a few herds of deer numbering about 300, but the present day population is about 7,000. Meeting any of these majestic animals is likely while peace, isolation and tranquility are other attractions of this remote and wild island. Jura is sparsely populated and is currently inhabited by a little over 200 people. The main settlement is Craighouse on the east coast, in fact almost all the people live on the south and east coast. The west of the island is hard to access but offer some of the finest raised beaches in the world. The only road on the island, single track all the way, starts at the ferry terminal near Feolin.

On the opposite side of the Sound of Islay, the narrow strait with its fast currents, is Port Askaig Islay, a car and passenger ferry links both. The road ends in the north of Jura, near Barnhill. Barnhill is also known for the cottage where Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell, lived from 1946-48 while writing his novel 1984. Orwell had first visited the island in 1945 and had an almost fatal encounter in the Gulf of Corryvreckan that separates Jura from the smaller island of Scarba to the north. The Corryvreckan Whirlpool as it is called is caused by an underwater mountain reaching almost to the surface of the strait causing the whirlpool to activate when the tides change. Especially with a strong westerly wind and upcoming tide the whirlpool is best visible. Jura Hotel runs Landrover trips from Craighouse to Kinuachdrach.

Craighouse seen from the Stone Pier Jura is ideal for walking and the visitor has almost unlimited freedom to walk almost everywhere and climb the Paps of Jura, visit the Wild west coast with it’s amazing wildlife or visit the Corryvreckan Whirlpool in the north. These are all tough hard walks. If you wish to walk during the stalking season, please check with the gamekeepers concerned. The main stalking season is from August to the end of October. From a historical point of view one can say that Jura’s history is in many ways similar to the other islands of the Hebrides. At some point the Norseman ruled the island from the Isle of Man until Somerled, whose steady rise to power in the Hebrides was cemented in the famous sea-battle of 1156 of Islay, ended Norse power in the Hebrides. Somerled’s descendants, named Clan Donald, and more commonly known to history as the “Lords of the Isles” grew to control all of the west coast and parts of north Scotland.

In 1506 the Treaty of Camus an Staca took away all MacDonald rights to land and power on Jura and gave them to a cadet branch of the House of Campbell. The Macleans in the meanwhile constantly strove to keep the Campbells out of north Jura. The island entered an era in which it was controlled for a longer period by the Campbell Clan in the early 1600s from which 11 lairds ruled the island. When explorer Martin Martin visited the Isle of Jura in 1703 he wrote an interesting account of the island and its people. According to explorer Thomas Pennant, who visited Jura twenty years later, the island “carried a fairly large population right through the period of Campbell domination into the era of emigration and clearance.” The Campbell dominance lasted until 1938 when Charles Campbell, the last Laird of Jura, sold the remaining parts of the Jura Estate and houses. Paps of Jura Dominating the view of Jura from almost any direction are the three, distinctive and easily recognised, Paps of Jura found in the southern half of the island.

The highest of the three is Beinn an Oir, the Mountain of Gold, is 785m/2576 ft is the only Corbett, a mountain in Scotland between 2500 and 3000 ft. Beinn Shiantaidh, the Sacred Mountain, is 757m/2477 ft and stands to the east of Beinn an Oir, while Beinn a’ Chaolais, the Mountain of the Sound, stands to the south-west and is the smallest of the three at 734m/2407 ft. Cora Bheinn, the steep mountain, stands at a height of 569 m/1893 ft to the north-east of Beinn Shiantaidh and, while not considered to be one of the Paps, is part of the same group of mountains. On one of the Paps remains of a checkpoint from the second world war can be found. Small Isles Bay opposite Craighouse There is a commanding view to be obtained from the top of the Paps on a clear day and it is well worth the effort of climbing one of them, if the weather is settled.

To the north is Loch Tarbert, the northern half of Jura, the Garvellachs and Mull. to the Northwest is Colonsay , to the east, the whole of Kintyre with Arran beyond, Ben Lomond and the Cobbler. To the south the Isle of Islay and Northern Ireland. Like Ben More on Mull, the Paps of Jura are visible from almost every other island in the Southern Hebrides. Jura House, which is located at the southern end of the island, was built around 1880 by the Campbell’s of Jura. The House itself can not be visited and is actually only visible from the ferry between Kennacraig and Port Askaig on Islay. The walled garden was created in the early part of the 19th century and acted as a kitchen garden to the house. The garden is closed to the public. There are a couple of small islands situated off the southern coast of Jura, Am Fraoch Eilean to the south-west of Jura House and Brosdale Island to the south-east.

On the first of these are the remains of Claig Castle, one of the sea fortresses that were used by by the Lords of the Isles to control traffic in the seas around the Hebridean islands. Jura and the Sound of Islay seen from Bunnahabhain Red Deer are Jura’s trademark and they can be found almost anywhere on the island, often in groups, specially in the autum when it’s time for the rut. When the roars of the stags echo through the hills you get a true sense for this magnificent island. Other wildlife includes otters, buzzards, hen harriers, golden eagles and many other song birds, depending on the habitat in which you are. Jura has many habitats such as woodland, bogs, heather, grassland, coastal bays, shingle and sandy (raised) beaches and many miles of unspoilt mountain area. Jura has no airport as such, merely a landing strip for emergencies in the north. Year round (vehicle) access to the island will require a visit to the neighbouring Isle of Islay where a regular ferry connects Port Askaig with Feolin.

The ferry runs at approx 30min intervals daily from 7.30am till 6.30pm. Booking is not required, a stop at the local petrol station in Port Askaig however is recommended if travelling by car. A passenger ferry is operated in the summer season only between Tayvallich on the Kintyre mainland and Craighouse on Jura. A bus service connects Feolin with Inverlussa and Ardlussa in the north. Jura Community & Local Websites. Tourist Information: Jura Pictures – A Gallery with Jura Images – Jura Development Trust George Orwell's house, Barnhill, on the island of Jura in Scotland | davidlansing.com Wednesday, August 26, 2009 in Europe , Scotland | 4 comments We drive for almost an hour along the perilous eastern coast of Jura along a gnarly track, known as “The Long Road,” that has even Charles holding his breath from time to time as the car dances on the edge of one precipice after another out over the sea. Finally we come to the end of the paved road and a gate with a sign forbidding vehicles to venture any farther.

Waiting for us on the other side of the gate, leaning against a very beat-up and muddy Land Rover, is Mike Richardson. “I’ve got to put the bloody sign up to keep igits from taking their rental cars up here,” says Richardson, who will turn 74 in September. “There’s no way they can make it on this road and then I end up having to tow them out.” The road Richardson refers to is really nothing more that a nasty rough track full of gouged holes a foot or more deep and grass knee-high in places. As we bounce along at 5 miles per hour, Richardson says, “This road is exactly the way it was when George drove his Army BSA motorbike over it 60 years ago. In fact, it might have been better back then.” George Orwell's house, Barnhill, on the east coast of Jura. Photos by David Lansing. The George he is referring to is George Orwell, who came to Jura in 1946 to write his last novel, a book with the working title The Last Man in Europe (which ended up being published as 1984).

According to Richardson, Orwell was looking to get as far away from civilization as possible—which is why he picked the wild and unpopulated stretch along Jura’s eastern coast. “He was a wounded animal looking for someplace to hide,” says Richardson of the author and war correspondant, one of the first journalists to enter the German concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. “What he saw there made him lose faith in mankind. He couldn’t comprehend the horror. And shortly thereafter he wife, Eileen, died, quite suddenly after a botched operation, and he was quite ill from the tuberculosis that would eventually claim his life at the age of 46 in 1950. So he was a man at the end of his rope, in a way—a bit of the last man in Europe himself as he saw it.” After about 40 minutes or so we make it the five miles to Barnhill, the old white stone house built in the 1850s, where Orwell lived from May 1946 to January 1949. Richardson takes me upstairs to the bedroom just above the kitchen where Orwell spent most of his time at Barnhill hammering away on his typewriter.

“It was his bedroom,” Richardson says as I look around at the cramped space, “but he didn’t sleep here. He preferred sleeping in an army tent in the garden. Thought the fresh air would do him good. More likely it made things worse.” Mike Richardson in front of Barnhill where Orwell wrote "1984." Later we sit on an old wooden bench in front of Orwell’s house looking out at the stone field walls, probably erected during the Bronze Age some 3,000 years ago, and the cherry trees Orwell planted and the bay from which he launched a 14-foot dinghy and tried to circumnavigate the island only to capsize just up the coast at the treacherous Corryvreckan whirlpool where he almost drowned. Or at least that’s the conventional version of the story. Which Richardson says with a wave of his hand is nonsense. “Bullocks. He wasn’t anywhere near the Corryvreckan,” he says. “He was with his son and they were headed for a small island along the west coast to collect puffin eggs and when they stepped out of the boat, it capsized and they were stuck on the island for three hours until a fisherman picked them up.

That’s the real story.” Then why, I ask him, do people always talk about Orwell almost drowning at the Corryvreckan whirpool? Richardson says, “Makes for a better story, I suppose.” He gives me a wink. “And you know how the Scots are with their stories.” I do. Orwell's Life on Jura "Thinking always of my island in the Hebrides." ORWELL'S LIFE ON JURA Orwell wrote the above sentence in his war diary in 1940, perhaps thinking about the lines of a poem called The Seasons that was written in 1730. And when his friend David Astor told him that he owned an estate on the island of Jura in the Scottish Hebrides, Orwell got the idea to move there. But he wanted to wait until the war was over because he didn't think it was right to leave London while it was being bombed. Only the privileged did that, whereas the poor had nowhere else to go. Finally the war ended in May 1945 and four months later Orwell travelled to Jura for the first time.

In 1946, 1947 and 1948 he spent about six months a year on Jura and Barnhill became his permanent home. The following excerpts from various biographies give the flavour of his life there. ~ Jackie Jura Here's from ORWELL, THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY, by Michael Shelden, page 439-440: Almost a year after Eileen's death, Orwell gave renewed consideration to a plan which he had shared with her in the last months of her life. He wanted to find a special retreat where he could escape the pressures of London for long periods at a time...Eileen had written to the landlady, Margaret Fletcher, and had obtained a good deal of information about the place. She was ready to move there if Orwell insisted on taking it, but she was not enthusiastic about the idea. She had every reason to doubt the wisdom of going there for any extended period. The house itself was enormous compared with The Stores - there were five spacious bedrooms, a large sitting-room and dining-room, and a big kitchen. But like the cottage, it had no electricity. This might have been easier for Eileen to bear if the place were not so isolated.

Barnhill stands near the northern tip of the island, and in Orwell's day the nearest neighbour was more than a mile away; the road leading to the place was nothing more than a primitive track which connected it to Margaret Fletcher's house several miles away, and the nearest shop was twenty-five miles to the south. It was the only one on the island. The population of about three hundred was scattered over an area of 160 square miles...[end of quoting from OTAB by Shelden] Here's from INSIDE GEORGE ORWELL, by Gordon Bowker, page 348-355: "As the harsh winter of 1945-46 wore on, Orwell was pining for Jura. He thought that away from London he might concentrate on his novel, telling Leonard Moore that when he returned he hoped to have a wad of it completed. However, preparing to move was a heavy task for him. He was ill again in March, and arranging for his furniture to be moved up to Scotland proved more arduous than anticipated, 'almost like stocking up a ship for an arctic voyage', he told Koestler.

However, the prospect of escaping London, the telephone and the journalistic grind buoyed him. During 1945 he had written over one hundred thousand words and his income was for the first time in excess of anything he had earned previously - some 967 pounds before tax. By the beginning of 1946 he was clearly suffering from overwork. He told Dorothy Plowman that he was 'smothered under journalism'; to Andrew Gow, he wrote, 'I have become more and more like a sucked orange ', and to his old POUM comrade Stafford Cottman, he wrote, 'For two months I mean to do nothing at all, then maybe I shall start another book but anyway, no journalism until next autumn...I have given up the cottage in Hertfordshire and taken another in the island of Jura in the Hebrides...I think I can make it quite comfortable with a little trouble, and then I shall have a nice place to retire to occasionally at almost no rent '...." "The conditions were fairly primitive. Without electricity he used Calor gas for heating water and cooking.

The Valor stove and storm lanterns burned paraffin and he burned coal and peat to heat the house in the evenings. The sole means of communication with the outside world was a battery radio. But the weather was surprisingly good...'It is not a cold climate here', he wrote, 'actually the mean temperature is probably warmer than in England, but there is not much sun and a great deal of rain'...." "To begin with Barnhill had no hot water and no decent transport. In June he went to Glasgow to pick up Kopp's van, but no sooner did he get it to Jura than it broke down on the quayside. Kopp, it apperas, had sold him a dud, but somehow their friendship survived this hiccough, and that year Orwell bought a goose from him for Christmas and Kopp's eldest son, Michel, visited Barnhill that summer. However, without the van, he was reduced to using an ancient motorbike, on which he became a familiar sight -- usually trying to get it started after it had broken down on the potholed track leading north to Barnhill.

He is remembered locally as suddenly appearing through the rain, a tall, gaunt figure in oilskins, sometimes, even more sinisterly, carrying a scythe (for the clearing of reeds from the track, apparently). It was a scene straight from an M.R. James ghost story or a ghastly verse from the Ingoldsby Legends."[end of quoting from IGO by Browker] Here's from ORWELL, WINTRY CONSCIENCE OF A GENERATION, by Jeffrey Meyers, page 255-258: "Most writers, after struggling for fifteen years to achieve literary success, would have remained in London to be lionized and enjoy their celebrity. But Orwell, immune to the effects of wealth and fame, couldn't endure his success: it didn't match his idea of himself. Desperately tired and jaded in the spring of 1946, he complained to Koestler that 'everyone keeps coming at me wanting me to lecture, to write commissioned booklets, to join this and that, etc. - you don't know how I pine to get free of it all and have time to think again'.

Nineteen Eighty-Four was beginning to take shape in his mind, and he wanted to rest for two months and allow the idea to germinate. Quite unexpectedly, the man who hated Scotland took off for the remote island of Jura in the Inner Hebrides..." From the booklet Jura and George Orwell, by Gordon Wright here are REMINISCENCES OF ERIC BLAIR by Mrs Fletcher/Nelson of Ardlussa: "I remember the April day in 1946 that Eric George Orwell (he was known locally by his true name of Eric Blair) arrived. He had heard about Jura from David Astor while he was a correspondent with the Observer Newspaper and in 1944 had written to my brother, who then owned Ardlussa, to find out if there was a suitable house to rent. My brother was killed in action in October 1944 so he renewed the correspondence with me when I returned to Jura in 1945. I suggested that he and his wife come to stay - to see Barnhill for themselves before making a decision.

Eric George Orwell - who was known locally by his true name of Eric Blair - wrote back to say that his wife was having to undergo an operation but that when she recovered they would like to come to Jura for about ten days. The next letter came to say that his wife had died during the operation. He then decided to come to Jura on his own." "He arrived at Ardlussa by the post-van and my husband Robin and I took him to Barnhill the next day. I well remember my first meeting with this tall, gaunt and sad-looking man and being extremely anxious as to how he would manage on his own. I offered to help with food supplies which were still strictly rationed and difficult to obtain. He said that he would be all right and preferred to manage on his own. I had the impresson that he was content as long as he had a roof over his head and a loaf of bread to eat..." "Eric started with very little furniture; he had only his basic needs - a camp bed, table, a chair or two and a few essential cooking utensils.

We lent him some furniture and gradually more was obtained but even by the end of his time on Jura the house never looked comfortable and except for the warm fire his sister, Avril, had in the kitchen it was fairly bleak. It was certainly a spartan existence to begin with but it was the way he wanted and gave the conditions under which he liked to work..." "I remember Richard, his adopted son, arriving in July 1946. Eric went down to fetch him and came back with the little boy, barely able to walk and a young housekeeper, Susan Watson, who was lame. His sister Avril came soon after this for a visit and decided to stay. She was an exceptional person. She was 41 when she came and had an interesting and varied life. We quickly became friends. One of her great gifts was to be able to see the amusing side of the many problems at Barnhill. She and Susan clearly did not see eye to eye and when Susan had a friend up to stay the situation became intolerable. The next we knew, Susan and her friend arrived on our doorstep one very wet evening just as it was getting dark, having walked the seven miles from Barnhill carrying their suitcases.

Susan was in a state of exhaustion. We put them up and they left next day by the post bus on their journey back to London..."[end of quoting from REMINISCENCES by Mrs Fletcher/Nelson] Here's from INSIDE GEORGE ORWELL by Gordon Bowker, page 356-357: "..Susan Watson's lover at the time, David Holbrook, decided to visit her at Jura. Holbrook, twenty-three and a member of the Communist Party, was just out of the army, and finishing an English degree at Downing College, Cambridge. He was anxious to meet the controversial author of The Road to Wigan Pier and Animal Farm, and was quite expecting to enjoy long conversations with him about literature and politics. He was to be disappointed. After struggling with the luggage over the last eight miles of track to Barnhill, menaced by rutting deer, he was greeted by the sight of Orwell shooting a duck with a shotgun. Inside the house the mood was sombre, the conversation gloomy and the atmosphere tense. He thought that having been told that he was a Communist, Orwell suspected he had come to spy on him.

He was not to know that he feared something even worse, which was precisely why he had bought that Lugar (Susan remembered him with a loaded handgun always at the ready on Jura). After all, Trotsky had been eliminated by a Communist agent who had insinuated himself into his household. Like Susan, Holbrook had walked on to the set of a Kafkaesque drama being played out in Orwell's own mind." "To the young student the place seemed a kind of Cold Comfort Farm, with all means of escape - the van and the motorbike - broken down, seemingly a deliberate act of self-isolation. He was warned grimly against the cliffs one could topple over in the dark - leaving him more than a little nervous...At supper that first day, Avril had burnt the goose, and Orwell droned on interminably about an arctic tern he had spotted that day.

'I wanted to talk to him about life, about politics, Spain and that sort of thing, but he was wheezing away about an artic tern'...Apart from feeling under suspicion, Holbrook also thought that Orwell disapproved of his carrying on his affair with Susan under his roof at Barnhill." "He did, however, manage to get a rare sight of Orwell's unfinished work. 'I was prowling around the house one day, when he was out, you know. I went up to the attic and there was a big attic room, and there was a desk, all untidy, and this typewriter where he was working. And it was obviously Nineteen Eighty-Four.'..."[end of quoting from IGO by Bowker] Here's from ORWELL, WINTRY CONSCIENCE OF A GENERATION, by Jeffrey Meyers, page 260: "Orwell loved Jura, especially in the summer. There was so much work to do at first that he kept his resolution and didn't write for several months.

Instead, he occupied himself with building obstinately sagging bookshelves and planting a vegetable garden, looking after the geese and hens, making hay and getting milk for Richard from a neighboring farm, going fishing and setting lobster traps, shooting rabbits and butchering venison, walking the hills and exploring the north coast in his outboard motorboat. He enjoyed a rich diet of lobster, rabbit and deer and (since there was no beer) had a ration of gin every night..."[end of quoting from OWCOAG by Meyers] Here's from ORWELL, THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY by Michael Shelden, page 440: He had no intention of becoming a hermit. He simply wanted to have more time to spend on writing something more substantial than short pieces for papers and magazines. He wanted people to come and visit him. He liked the idea of having a steady stream of friends coming and going. There was enough room in the house to allow him to work quietly even with a few guests under his roof, and their presence would give him the chance to continue engaging in the kind of friendly debates which he so much enjoyed in London.

Barnhill would be not only his farmhouse but his office, his restaurant, his pub, his inn, and there would be few reminders of the outside world of wars, dirty streets, modern factories, and power politics...[end of quoting from OTAB by Shelden] From the booklet Jura and George Orwell, by Gordon Wright here's REMINISCENCES OF ERIC BLAIR by Mrs Fletcher/Nelson of Ardlussa, page 11-12: "That first summer many friends and relatives came and went. Some marvelled, on arrival, at the peace and tranquility of life on Jura but found it difficult to accept the isolation. To many of them we gave hospitality and helped them on their journey. Coming from London they had already travelled 24 hours by train, boat and bus by the time they reached Ardlussa. As there was no telephone and telegrams came by post many visitors arrived at the same time as the telegram announcing their arrival.

This added complications as there would be no-one down from Barnhill to meet them." "The nearest neighbours were either at Kinuachdrach, which was a mile and a half further north where we ran a small farm, or ourselves at Ardlussa. Milk and eggs were obtained from Kinuachdrach but all the groceries were sent up once a week form the shop in Craighouse... Avril, with Orwell's help when he was well enough, dug the garden and grew what vegetables she could. It was difficult to keep out the deer which abounded round the house." "Transport was varied and unreliable. To begin with they had a rowing boat with an outboard engine and a motor bicicyle which was constantly breaking down. Eric spent many hours sitting beside the road tinkering with the engine and hoping that someone would appear who had more mechanical knowledge than he had. My older children remember him often coming to the house, usually in oilskins, wanting help.

He often carried a scythe on the back of his motor bike with which to cut the rushes which grew rapidly in the middle of the road...A pony was lent them but it had a will of its own and soon got the upper hand and refused to go into the shafts of the pony cart. It was very occasionally ridden down for the mail. Richard Rees, who came to live at Barnhill a year later with Avril and Eric, bought a lorry which did for awhile but was continually needing attention. Tyres and spare parts were difficult to obtain. There were two men working at Ardlussa at this time who had a good working knowledge of engines and many times they helped get the varied Barnhill transport working again. Later they had a larger boat which was used to come down to Ardlussa for visitors and supplies when the weather was good. Before they left they had an old Austin truck. "During the time that Eric was living at Barnhill he did occasionally bring Richard in for me to look after for a day or two with my four children, but I know he was always reluctant to ask. One day he brought Richard down with a badly cut forehead which he had done by falling off a chair onto a glass.

This had to be stitched so we sent the car to Craighouse for the doctor. There was no district nurse so I held the boy while the doctor stitched. Eric looked miserably unhappy and occasionally came into the bathroom to see how we were getting on..."[end of quoting from REMINISCENCES by Mrs Fletcher/Nelson] Here's from GEORGE ORWELL, A LIFE by Bernard Crick, page 356-368: "Strangers were not uncommon in the summer. Remote though the house was, both sleek yachtsmen and tough hikers, possibly challenged by its very remoteness, would call from time to time as if, Avril said with conscious exageration, 'it was a Public House' or as if they were doing them a favour. Her brother did not welcome such casual callers...Orwell welcomed the real islanders, however, when the men from the cottages north of Barnhill came down. In the manner of the islands, the kettle was always boiling on the hearth and strong tea and scones were dispensed.

When someone brought supplies up from Craighouse or the post from Ardlussa, they were offered 'a wee dram' (a stiff double, in fact). Most of the islanders liked him, one of his neighbours recalled: 'He seemed a kindly man and he kept himself to himself and interfered with no one' - which the crofters see as a great virtue among their own kind, and even more as how the gentry should treat them. (Orwell saw himself as potentially one of them; but they firmly saw him as 'a peculiar and kindly gentleman.')..." "...Bill Dunn saw a good deal of the Blairs. He was sceptical about Orwell's skills as a farmer, gardener or handyman. Orwell was still suffering from the effects of his winter bronchitis, and was not out of the house much for the first month after their return, so Avril was grateful for Bill Dunn's help in and out of the house.

Dunn welcomed the company of a gentleman, even a rather stiff -- he thought - and reserved Left-wing writer; but he was pleased to notice that the sister, though perfectly loyal, did not share all her brother's values, obsessions and political views." "Richard Rees was to come for a long stay that summer, but had not yet arrived. By the end of May, Orwell began to get out and about again, though he did not feel in good health until midsummer. Bill Dunn reminisced: 'I thought he was a very nice chap, very vague, terribly vague, he certainly didn't look well, but he was always jolly game.

I remember going out to Scarba with him.' Scarba was only a mile north of Jura, but was across the famous Corryvreckan, a tidal race and whirlpool." "'We landed in a sort of shingly bay and the first thing we saw was a dirty great adder, an enormous thing and Eric quickly planted his boot right on top of its neck and anchored it to the ground and I fully expected that with the other foot he would grind its head into the ground too - he was obviously intent on destroying it - but he got out his penknife and quite deliberately opened and proceeded more or less to fillet this wretched creature, he just ripped it right open with the thing - quite deliberately. I must say, it surprised me terribly because he always really struck me as being very gentle to animals, in fact I think he was a very gently, kindly sort of man.'..." "None of the summer visitors to Jura remember his talking about what book he was writing.

They just heard the typewriter pounding away in his room...[end of quoting from GOAL, by Crick] Here's from ORWELL, WINTRY CONSCIENCE OF A GENERATION by Jeffrey Meyers, page 261-262: "Michel Kopp visited Jura in the summer of 1947 and found the farmhouse 'rather dilapidated'. Orwell was driving himself hard, 'working day and night at his book with perhaps the premonition that Nineteen Eighty-Four would be the last one and that death was lurking in the background... I used to see him mainly at supper-time. He was looking in poor health, eating little, chainsmoking and drinking a lot of coffee.'" "Jane and Lucy Dakin, on Jura in the summers of 1946 and 1947, found both Orwell and Avril -- who was keeping house for him--remote, detached and self-absorbed. When Lucy finally arrived, thoroughly exhausted after the long and difficult journey from London, he merely said, 'Ah, there you are Lu '. And there was no hug from Aunt Avril, who gave her a glass of milk with a shot of brandy.

Avril, who'd run a tea shop in Southwold, was a good cook. She was practical. Orwell was not; and though he thrived on hardship, he could never have survived on Jura without her. Apart from mealtimes, he typed for most of the day. They ate ghastly Scottish bread, and there always had to be a pudding, which he loved. After dinner he'd take a walk or fish for food. Janey and Lucy helped make hay and fetch the milk for Richard from the neighboring farm. In their spare time they read copies of the exotic New Yorker--sent free to Orwell as a valued contributor." "Gwen O'Shaughnessy, with her children Laurence and Catherine, also traveled up to Jura. Catherine, who became a nurse in later life, remembered the difficult approach to the uncomfortable house:" "'We were met, in the dead of night, by a horse and cart and taken to a farmhouse where we spent the night. We then travlled...in this cart along a path they called a road. It was literally a two-wheeled dirt track with great big ruts in it which made the journey long and rough.

He was living in an old farmhouse on the edge of the sea. Freezing cold. It pelted with rain, slamming it into the side of the house with such force that I thought it would blow the place down. He chose that place for its isolation and quietness but for a TB patient it couldn't have been worse. It was damp and cold most of the time. Not an ideal place to convalesce.'" "To Catherine, Orwell seemed 'long-suffering, tired looking, immensely thin, but gentle.'"[end of quoting from OWCOAG by Meyers] From the booklet Jura and George Orwell, by Gordon Wright here's REMINISCENCES OF ERIC BLAIR by Mrs Fletcher/Nelson page 14-16: "From the time he came Eric was a sick man suffering from Tuberculosis. As he grew worse it was arranged that a specialist should be called from Glasgow to see him as he was too ill to travel. This was December 1947. Richard Rees brought him down from Barnhill and he stayed in our house for about a week. The specialist arrived and after exmamining Eric told us on no account to let him go back up the rough road to Barnhill.

There was a danger that he might have a severe haemorrhage which could prove fatal. He was to be kept quiet and in bed until a place could be found for him in a sanatorium near Glasgow. We had already looked after him for several days but after hearing what the doctor had said he refused to stay any longer saying that it was unfair for him to remain and be a risk to our four young children. We urged him to stay explaining that we were keeping all his things separate and would destroy his bedding after he left. We said that a few more days would not make any difference but he insisted on summoning Richard Rees and returning to Barnhill. During this time I recall him having long talks with my husband, Robin. They had both been at Eton - but Eric twelve years earlier. He told Robin that he was anxious to have enough strength left to finish the book he was writing. He felt it had an important message." "He knew that he had not very long to live. On one occasion I thoughtlessly left a bottle of painkillers for toothache by his bed. I was in the garden when I remembered it and hurried in. I need not have worried.

Eric's concern was to have enough strength to finish his book." "After many months in a sanatorium Eric came back to Barnhill. The farming enterprise was got under way. Bill Dunn was living there, running some cattle and getting the fields ready to grow some crops. I think Eric came to realize that his vision of Jura being divided into small-holdings for dairy farming was totally impractical. The distance from markets, the difficulties of getting supplies and the isolation are too great for all but a few exceptional people. In spite of Bill's hard work and the help of Avril and friends, the farm at Barnhill hardly broke even let alone made a living wage." "We were sorry when the inevitable came. Eric had to move south - too ill to continue living at Barnhill. The farm closed down and Bill Dunn moved to the mainland where he later married Avril. Sonia Brownell, who had married Eric while he was in hospital just a few weeks before he died in January 1950, came up in February to stay with us at Ardlussa. Robin took her to Barnhill which she saw for the first time and where she went through Eric's papers .

She was clearly upset by its lack of comfort and amenities and felt that she could not have lived there without drastic modernisation." "The book "1984" was written during Eric's time on Jura and was completed in 1948. He spent many hours in bed in the rooms above the kitchen with his typewriter on his knees working on the final draft of his manuscript. The sound of his urgent typing to complete the work could be heard constantly in the kitchen below..."[end of quoting from REMINISCENCES by Mrs Fletcher/Nelson] Here's from ORWELL, THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY, by Michael Shelden, page 379: On 28 July he was back on Jura. Avril had brought an excited Richard down to Glasgow to meet him. Bill Dunn was waiting with the giant second-hand Austin at Craighouse. For six hot and glorious summer weeks he was at least a long shadow of his old self. He played with Richard more than before. The boy was now 4 1/2, a gib lad for his age.

'Though I only get up half the day,' Orwell told both Celia Kirwan and Michael Meyer, so could take no boat trips or long walks or help around the farm. He did not feel up to riding the frisky Bob, yet walked to Kinuachdrach several times to fetch milk and butter and pottered in the vegetable garden. And he revised his book. If he had to spend half the day in bed, yet 'I have got quite used to working in bed', he told Meyer..."[end of quoting from OTAG by Crick] Here's from ORWELL, WINTRY CONSCIENCE OF A GENERATION, by Jeffrey Meyers page 292: "As Orwell risked his life to finish Nineteen Eighty-Four, he also entertained unrealistic hopes for the future.

In October 1948 he hesitantly told Julian Symons: 'I could go abroad perhaps, but the journey might be the death of me, so perhaps a sanatorium might be best.' Writing to Richard Rees a few months later, he finally admitted that he'd been unwise to stay on Jura: 'I must from now on spend my winters within reach of a doctor - where, I don't know yet, but possibly somewhere like Brighton.' ... The ominous progression of his wasting disease - he suffered loss of weight, emaciation, high fever, night sweats, shortness of breath, wheezing, chest pains, severe coughing, frequent colds and spitting blood - finally forced him to leave the island in January 1949..." [end of quoting from OWCOAG by Meyers] and from GEORGE ORWELL, A LIFE by Bernard Crick, page 385: By now everyone, including himself, faced the fact that he would die if he did not surrender himself, for a while at least, to a sanatorium. He had at last found one [near London in the Cotswolds]. Even the journey had complications and could have proved fatal.

Bill and Avril were to drive him down to spend the night at the hotel in Craighouse before catching the morning boat. Starting rather late in the day the car slipped in the dusk into an enormous pot-hole. On a wet and bitterly cold night, leaving him in the car to comfort Richard, Bill and Avril walked back four miles to Ardlussa to get help. With difficulty and exertion they were pulled out by a tractor, and set on the road again. Ever since that haemorrhage in January 1946, it had been folly for Orwell to live so far from town, however much he loved the country. They met Richard Rees on the mainland, and he accompanied Orwell (whose essays he had first printed twenty years ago) down to Gloucestershire on the train." [end of quoting from GOAL by Crick] The island of Jura: Inside the big brother house | The Independent UK The island of Jura: Inside the big brother house Sixty years ago, George Orwell travelled to the island of Jura to write 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.

Andrew Spooner follows his trail Saturday 15 July 2006 23:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Travel The vast sky is the purest, deepest blue. Etched against the heavens are a series of meandering rocky peaks, cast from quartz and granite and set into a tapestry of burnished, open landscape. A rippling sea, waves cresting into foam, frames the picture. Given the usual weather suffered by Scotland's Western Isles, my welcome to the far-flung isle of Jura couldn't have been more auspicious. As the minuscule ferry pulls into the harbour of Feolin on a glorious July afternoon, it's strange to think that this astonishing landscape helped inspire one of the bleakest novels of the 20th century. It was 60 years ago this summer that one Eric Blair arrived on the remote - what he termed "completely un-getable" - island of Jura, seeking inspiration. "He was known only as Eric Blair to the locals," explains Mike Richardson, a sprightly septuagenarian and Jura's one and only guide.

"Nobody ever called him George Orwell." I'm setting out with Mike on an expedition to discover what it is about this beautiful place that moved Orwell to pen Nineteen Eighty-Four, his famous work about a totalitarian future that introduced the world to Big Brother. First, though, I need some supplies. "You'd better pick up something to eat here," says Mike as we set off from Craighouse, the only village on Jura and home to its one shop. "I'm afraid we don't have much in the way of cafes and restaurants." I grab a bagful of biscuits, fruit, bread and cheese. "Make sure you bring a raincoat too," says Mike, "the weather can turn quickly." We clamber into Mike's battered Land Rover and head north from Craighouse on Jura's only road - a rough track that follows the island's eastern coast. "We're going to drive up past where Orwell lived to my home at Kinuachdrachd and then we'll walk to the headland overlooking the famous Corryvreckan whirlpool where Orwell almost died," says Mike. Is it far? "About 25 miles.

Jura is roughly 30 miles long and five miles wide," he says, as we bounce down the road. "There are only 180 permanent inhabitants, though there are thousands of deer." In the early 19th century, Jura had a population of around two thousand. Then came the clearances and near starvation. Most fled to the mainland or emigrated to the United States. These days much of Jura is parcelled into vast estates. They are kept mainly as shooting grounds, the thousands of deer and pheasants providing bountiful targets for the wealthy elite who frequent the island. It was Orwell's connection to Jura's landowners that brought him here in 1946. The family of his editor at The Observer, David Astor, held estates and when Orwell expressed a desire to find an isolated spot to escape the pressures of London and work on his next novel, Astor suggested Jura. After meeting another family of landowners, the Fletchers, Orwell heard of a farmhouse near Jura's northern tip called Barnhill. He decided to make this his home. Back on Jura's only road, Mike and I are making steady, if slow, progress.

"The road gets worse as we go north," says Mike. We pass over vast, barren moorland, the impressive hills of the Jura Paps providing the backdrop, through woodlands, skirting the sea and a string of secret rocky coves. With each mile the potholes get deeper and the grass running up the centre of the road thicker. Then, as we round a corner of the meandering coast, Mike pulls the car to a halt. "See that?" he says, pointing to a tiny white speck clinging like a limpet to the island: "That's Barnhill. That's where Orwell lived." The pastoral charms of Jura would not attract everyone. With harsh weather and a lack of amenities - including no electricity or running water in places - stunning landscapes can soon transform into desolate, yawning panoramas. Nonetheless, Western Isles such as Jura continue to attract a certain kind of traveller. For many years this has been epitomised by moneyed Englishmen looking for something to shoot. More recently, visitors have arrived to take advantage of adventure sports - climbing, walking and sea-kayaking - and the soothing calm that islands such as Jura can offer.

Indeed the Tory leader David Cameron is a frequent visitor here, though he spends most of his time as a guest of the Astors, rubbing shoulders, no doubt, with the shooting classes. Eventually, we arrive at a sign stating the distance to both Mike's house at Kinuachdrachd (five miles) and Barnhill (four miles). It also forbids vehicles. "I live here so it doesn't apply to me. We put the sign up because people kept trying to drive their normal cars along this road and they were getting stuck," says Mike. "From here on in the road gets very bad and you really need a proper four-wheel drive." We inch along the rutted, jarring track, the vista turning more wild and remote with each bump. I spy an adder warming itself on a rock; up above, birds of prey circle on the rising air and the massive hills press in. Then, as we swing round a bend, Barnhill appears. "Now you can really begin to get an idea of how isolated it must have been for Orwell," says Mike. According to Michael Sheldon's authorised biography, Orwell loved the idea of remote self-sufficiency, and even grew his own vegetables.

He was, however, a lonely figure after his wife's death and proposed to several women just before he left for Jura; all of them declined. "I would imagine he arrived in quite a sad state of mind," says Mike. A short path leads down to the proud white house. Mike points out the room where Orwell spent most of his time hammering away on his typewriter. "He used to write in his bedroom, which was just above the kitchen," adds Mike. By the time Orwell arrived in Jura the TB that would eventually kill him was taking hold. "I believe he used to sleep in a large army tent in the garden," says Mike. "Apparently they thought that a night in the fresh open air would do you good. Heaven knows if it made things worse." I peer through the windows looking for a vestige of Orwell's past. "None of the original interior exists now," says Mike. "Most of it was burnt when he died." We spend a short time taking in the dreamy view over the Kintyre peninsula that Orwell must have once enjoyed, and then move on.

"I want to show you the Corryvreckan whirlpool," says Mike as we drive the final mile to his home at Kinuachdrachd. After stopping for a quick tea with Mike's wife Joan, we begin our walk across the ridge at the northern tip of Jura. "The Corryvreckan whirlpool is caused by two currents meeting in the passage between Jura and the island of Scarba," says Mike, pointing from where we have arrived on the cliffs to two thick lines of dark water. "One comes from the south and the other from the north. At this time of year the water isn't at its strongest so the whirlpool is not so big, but keep your eye on it and one will soon appear." Sure enough, within minutes a vortex of water develops, swirling and foaming the black, forbidding surface. "Orwell took his adopted son and a friend out on a small boat," says Mike. "The outboard engine was sucked clean off and they had to row to one of the small rocky islands near the whirlpool. Their boat disappeared under the waves just as they got on to the rocks.

They were rescued several hours later." I return to Craighouse and the Jura Hotel that evening exhausted from my exploring and enraptured by Jura's beauty. I am bewitched by the island's melancholic allure, and can see what attracted Orwell to one of the most untamed corners of the British Isles. I just hope that, even for a while, he enjoyed the weather. Andrew Spooner travelled to Jura on a BMW R1200GS motorcycle (0800 777 155; worldofbmw.com). For more information on visiting Scotland or to book accommodation, contact Visit Scotland (0845 22 55 121; visitscotland.com) Isle of Jura travel guide - Wikitravel Understand[ edit ] Craighouse, the main settlement on Jura. Jura, though fairly large in size, is a sparsely populated island with a population of approximately 200 people. Jura has a large population of red deer (it is commonly believed that the name 'Jura' was derived from 'hjörtr' - the Old Norse word for deer).

Much of the island is designated as a National Scenic Area and is dominated by three conical mountains known as the Paps of Jura which rise to over 2500 feet (762 m). The west coast of Jura is currently uninhabited but is home to a number of raised beaches. Craighouse is the island's main settlement. This is where you will find the island's only shop (run by Spar), hotel and pub. This is also where you will find the only two places to eat out on the island - the Jura Hotel and the Antlers Bistro. The village of Craighouse is also home to the island's only distillery and only functioning church. Jura's nearest city is Glasgow . Direct routes to Jura[ edit ] A seasonal fast passenger ferry [1] runs from Tayvallich on the mainland (around 2.5 hours drive from Glasgow) to Craighouse on Jura, taking around 45 mins to an hour to complete the crossing and often linking up with West Coast Motors [2] buses from Lochgilphead . The ferry runs from Easter to the end of September with up to two crossings daily except Wednesdays.

Advance booking is compulsory; tickets cost £20 each way. In addition, a few licensed boat owners provide a private water taxi service from the Tayvallich and Crinan area, who will drop you at various points on the island. Via Islay[ edit ] Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac) [3] runs a number of vehicle ferries per day between Kennacraig (on the Kintyre peninsula, around 105 miles from Glasgow and 6 miles south of Tarbert ) to Port Askaig or Port Ellen on Islay . Vehicle bookings should be made in advance as these sailings are often fully booked. The crossing takes 2 hours to Port Askaig and 2 hours and 10 minutes to Port Ellen. For those arriving by bus, the Kennacraig ferry terminal is served by the Citylink [4] 926 service linking Glasgow with Campbeltown , and the West Coast Motors [5] 448 service linking Lochgilphead and/or Tarbert with Claonaig (for Arran ) and Skipness .

In addition, an infrequent West Coast Motors bus, service 449 (Lochgilphead - Campbeltown), stops at the end of the causeway linking the A83 with the ferry terminal. CalMac also operate ferries from Oban and Colonsay to Port Askaig on Wednesdays between March and October. Flybe [6] operates two return flights per day (one on Sundays) from Glasgow International Airport to Islay, and Hebridean Air Services [7] operate two return flights per week from Oban to Islay via Colonsay. Public transport runs from the airport to Port Askaig. A small car ferry operates across the Sound of Islay between Port Askaig on Islay and Feolin Ferry on Jura. The ferry runs roughly hourly from 6AM to 6:30PM every day [8] (though Sundays have reduced hours). The ferry often leaves up to 15 minutes before the scheduled time, so get there early! From Feolin Ferry it is 8 miles to the island's main settlement, Craighouse. By bus[ edit ] Jura lacks good public transport because of its remote nature and few roads.

A public bus operated by Garelochhead Coaches [9] does run between Feolin and Craighouse up to four times a day, with some journeys extending to Inverlussa and/or Lagg. The bus operates only on request for some journeys, notably the 0725 from Craighouse to Feolin on school holidays and Saturdays, so you must book in advance for those journeys. It may be possible to book the bus for private hire. By road[ edit ] A milestone on the A846 Many visitors to Jura bring private cars over via the Kennacraig/Islay and Port Askaig/Feolin ferries. It is also possible to hire cars on Islay. Don't be fooled by the fact that there is no posted speed limit - you cannot reach over 40 miles an hour due to factors such as the number of bends in the road and the wild animals wandering in the road. The single-track A846 road stretches from Feolin to Craighouse and beyond.

The road continues past Craighouse and heads northwards through the smaller settlements of Lagg, Tarbert and Ardlussa and provides some stunning views of the Paps and Jura's rugged coastline. In Ardlussa, the road splits. The right fork takes you to the hamlet of Inverlussa, where it is possible to wild camp. The left fork takes you past a sign which says 'End of Public Road 3 miles'. A private vehicle track runs from the road end to the far north of the island. This track passes Barnhill, where the writer George Orwell lived towards the end of his life and where he wrote his famous novel 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'. This track provides the best access to a footpath leading to view of the Corryvrekkan whirlpool which lies between the northern tip of Jura and the island of Scarba. (Note that it's a 7-8 mile hike from the end of the road to the view of the whirlpool.) By bike[ edit ] Cycling is a popular way to see the island and bikes can either be brought on the ferry or hired from the Jura Hotel.

The island's only road is single-track and hilly in places and it can be frustrating to be progressing slowly but steadily uphill only to have to pull over when you meet a car. By thumb[ edit ] It's said that hitch-hiking always comes with a risk, but Jura is probably one of the safest places in the world for this. The biggest risk generally is that you won't see another soul, especially away from Craighouse, so don't bank on it. Buy[ edit ][ add listing ] Jura Stores the island's only shop may be small but it offers a wide range of food and non-food items including everything from fresh bread to fuses and fishing rods. Jura Hotel may only have a 'gifts cabinet' but they manage to pack in lots of items - from postcards to jewellery and tea towels to hip flasks. Jura Distillery shop, craighouse. Jura distillary shop selling normal Jura whisky and limited edition specials. Additionally sells many Jura whisky themed merchandise. edit The Antlers, craighouse, [11] . Sells collection of local arts and crafts.

Can have a cup of coffee while browsing edit Eat[ edit ][ add listing ] Jura Hotel, Craighouse, Tel: +44 1496 820243. Has a good menu using local produce and all of the eating areas (dining room, lounge bar and bar) have beautiful views across Small Isles Bay. The Tea Tent, Jura House Gardens, Ardfin. Operating in the summer only the tea tent in the gardens at Jura house offers home baking and beverages in a beautiful setting. The Antlers, Craighouse, ☎ +44 1496 820123, [12] . 9.30AM to 9.00PM. Bistro restaurant offering tea, coffee, home baking and freshly produced, locally sourced food. Booking advisable for evening as only seats 24. Great decked area to watch the world go but while having lunch. Also sells local crafts, and has a local heritage display ain the entrance delving into the history and customs of Jura. As of August 2012, they only serve dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, and that's only if at least 8 people have made reservations.

edit Drink[ edit ][ add listing ] Jura Hotel, Craighouse, Tel: +44 1496 820243. Again, the only place to drink on the island is the Jura Hotel, but you can choose between the lounge bar and public bar. The bar is the centre of the island's social life and can be a great place to meet locals, although it can get very busy during annual events or on the night of a ceilidh. Sleep[ edit ][ add listing ] Barnhill, the house where George Orwell wrote 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' A selection of bed & breakfast and self catering accommodation can be found online with Jura Development [13] . In addition: Jura Hotel, Craighouse, Tel: +44 1496 820243.A small, family-run hotel in the heart of Jura's main village. Barnhill, the remote house where George Orwell wrote 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', can be rented by the week. It is difficult to reach without a Land Rover or boat, and potential guests are advised that there is no electricity supply and few creature comforts.

[14] or tel: +44 1786 850274. Camping The Jura Hotel provides camping in a scenic field situated between the hotel and the shore. Campers use toilets and showers at the hotel. No charge, but donations are accepted in the hotel bar. There are also many places on the island where you can wild camp, including Corran Sands (two miles north of Craighouse), and Inverlussa (3/4 of a mile outside Ardlussa), which is an excellent place due to its flat and large open areas. Take some midge/mosquito repellent - you will need it! Jura - Lonely-Isles Lonely-Isles More Links Jura Jura is a relatively large island in the district of Argyll & Bute lying just to the north west of Islay. Jura is nearly 30 miles long and at some points 7 miles wide but the population is than 200. The west is wild and virtually uninhabited, occupied only by the three Paps of Jura which are known in Gaelic as The Mountain of the Sound, The Mountain of Gold and The Sacred Mountain.

The Western Isles were often the subject of attack by the Vikings and Jura would have been no exception. Although there is little evidence of a permanent Viking settlement on Jura, there is some evidence of Viking influence in the few Norse Names, which are to be found on Jura. The name Jura itself is almost certainly derived from the Norse Dy Oer - pronounced Joora and meaning, "Deer Island". Jura may only be home to less than 200 people but there are 6500 deer so it's not hard to see where the name derived from. The Vikings must have had their time until Somerled, whose descendants were to become the MacDonalds or Lords of the Isles, drove them out in the 12th Century. Until the 1600's the MacDonalds held much of the island with their stronghold at Claig Castle on Am Fraoch Eilean- near Ardfin. It is reputed that the MacDonalds extracted tolls from the ships passing through the Sound of Islay. The castle is today in ruins but it must have been a formidable building as the walls of the tower are 9ft thick.

In the early 17th Century the MacDonalds fell out of favour with the Scottish Crown and most of their land on Jura was granted to the Campbells where it remained for many generations. At that time the Macleans with their base at Aros Castle - Glen Garrisdale owned the north end of Jura and they did not take kindly to the arrival of the Campbells. There was constant fighting between the Campbells and Macleans. The Macleans finally parted with their land by selling it to Donald McNeil of Colonsay in 1737. In more recent times George Orwell, or Eric Blair as he was known by to the locals, first visited Jura in September 1945 on the recommendation of his friend David Astor of Tarbert Estate, but it was in April 1946 that he finally came to live at Barnhill- a remote farmhouse at the north of the island. Not sure whether he wrote "1984" while on Jura but there is every chance he did.

​ Nowadays the islanders of Jura live on the east coast, mostly round Craighouse, where the "Isle Of Jura" distillery is located, and which overlooks the Small Isles nestling in the bay and protecting Jura's coastline there. Books. DVD's and Videos Visit book's Amazon page Links Isle Of Jura - Well designed site which is primarily a selling point for the world famous Isle Of Jura single malt. However, along side the whisky the site also has an excellent history of the island as well as a good selection of links. Well worth a visit even if you don't drink. Jura Development Trust - Details of bus and ferry schedules can be found here. Also contains some excellent photo's as well as news of local activities, property for sale and accomodation for holiday makers. Jura Info - Excellent site packed with just about everything you will need to know about Jura if you're planning a visit. Calmac Islay Ferry - If going by boat there is no direct link from the mainland. First you have to sail on a Calmac ferry to Port Ellen or Port Askaig on Islay.

There is then a ferry run by ASP Seascot which links Port Askaig and Feolin on Jura. Internet Guide Jura Page - Jura section of the always helpful "Internet Guide To Scotland" website. From here you will find many more interesting links on Jura and it's near neighbour Islay. Buyimage - Photographic website which contains many excellent images of the Scottish Isles...including Jura. BACK - All content © Paul M Clements / Deena C Clements unless stated otherwise. For anyone in any doubt, this site is simply a hobby, not a commercial enterprise. Proudly powered by Weebly ISLAY & JURA - Faraway Fairways Faraway fairways ISLAY & JURA Islay Pronounced Eye-la, the Isle of Islay is Known as “The Queen of the Hebrides”, it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura and 25 miles north of the Irish coast. The island’s capital is Bowmore where the distinctive round Kilarrow Parish Church, said to have been designed to ensure that evil spirits had no corner in which to hide is located. Kilarrow Parish ChurcH, the circular design was to prevent evil spirits hiding.

Mind you, the plethora of whisky distilleries was a pretty effective second line of defence you’d imagine There is ample evidence of the prehistoric settlement of Islay with stone circles, carved stones and crosses, rremains of forts and castles and evidence of Bronze Age settlements. The first written reference may have come in the 1st century AD. The island had become part of the Gaelic Kingdom of Dál Riata during the Early Middle Ages before being absorbed into the Norse Kingdom of the Isles. The later medieval period marked a “cultural high point” with the transfer of the Hebrides to the Kingdom of Scotland and the emergence of the Clan Donald Lordship of the Isles. Improvements to agriculture and transport led to a rising population, which peaked in the mid-19th century. The island has a long history of religious observance and Scottish Gaelic is spoken by about a quarter of the population. Peat is still cut from the mosslands which cover much of the interior, giving the unique flavour to the ‘Islay malts’ – world-famous whiskies such as Bowmore, Laphroaig and Ardbeg.

Most are still in production and welcome visitors to watch the production process and, even better, sample their delights. The Laphroaig whisky distillery ticks the boxes for quality and convenience. Imbibing this golden elixir visits mysterious memory altering properties on golfers. Poor shots are miraculously erased from the memory, whereas as modest efforts come to assume superlatives Jura To the immediate north of Islay lies the isle of Jura, population 180. A small ferry links the two, it only takes a matter of minutes. The landscape of Jura is dominated by the ‘paps’, the island’s distinctive mountains. The Paps of Jura, seem to dominate every view off the west coast of Argyll. Sailing in the Sound of Islay with the Paps of Jura in the background Jura is one of the wildest and most mountainous of the Inner Hebrides. With just one road, which sticks to the more sheltered eastern coast of the island, Jura is an ideal place to go for peace and quiet, something writer George Orwell realised.

He lived here in a remote farmhouse called Barnhill, at the northern end of the Island, where he worked to complete his famous work, “1984”. Monday is the only day of the week where we could play Machrie and concievably take in both Jura and Islay, before returning by ferry to the Kintyre Peninsula in a single long day. As ever, our time will be limited but this is where the value of our car comes in. A non-golfer could conceivably do both and get a flavour of Jura by simply driving out into the wilderness

Question: Which famous author lived at “Barnhill” on the island of Jura?
Answer: George Orwell