Islay For photographs scroll down to bottom
June 2008
with Paul and Hazel Heppleston
Gourock ferry terminal makes a good meet-up point; there’s a sense of ‘gateway’ at a place where the railway line ends and the sea is just beyond the buffers, with Calmac waiting…..
Ninety minutes later, as a prelude to our time together on the isle, we stopped in an unknown spot by the shores of Loch Fyne at a small hut beside a small bay of great beauty. Here we rested, ate together and prayed - and gathered ourselves after land-travel before boat-travel to Islay which brought us in the hired minibus to Port Ellen for mid-evening. Our house was near Bridgend, a wonderful property with plenty of space and a huge fire-warmed lounge.
The remaining six whole days were spread around the island :
- visiting Finlaggan, the ancient seat of the Lord of the Isles (see photos 1 and 2)
- Walking around the RSPB reserve on The Oa, (photo 3) to the American Monument, built in memory of those who died when troopships foundered off Islay in WW1.
- Searching for a ruined village in The Oa, finding it, lunching under heather fronds away from the drizzle and scrambling back to the minibus down a wooded hillside.
- Attempting to find another ruined village, but wandering in a circle around the S end of the isle and glad to find our way back again.
- Trekking on Jura (the in-trepid ones) and shopping in Bowmore (the more trepid folk).
- Visiting the round church in Bowmore, worshipping in the welcoming Episcopal church just half a mile from our house, but encountering God in the Big Book of Creation everywhere.
- The Islay Museum of Island Life, a wonderful prelude to an even greater few hours spent on Mackenzie Island off Portnahaven (photos 4 and 5); Gilbert was our most generous and obliging boatman and ferried us in two morphed groups to/from the islet; there we had a wonderful shore-fire lunch and saw geese, deer and waves and stones and a ringed Shag (which later turned out to have been ringed a year before on Colonsay). A gentle walk round a coastal path by butterwort and orchid and bog-cotton rounded off the whole.
- Driving at 10pm way over to the west side to catch the setting sun over Saligo Bay; colour, dramatic cloud, sun-pink glow, waves, wet sand under bare feet…we were teenagers again…
- Visiting Cleggain Bay, the Kildalton Cross and Ardbeg distillery (not neshesharily in that order you undershtand).
- A final day of sun and waves and sand saw us at the Gruinard RSPB Reserve and Visitor Centre in the NW of the isle. From here a superb walk around Ardnave Point (photo 9) with at least three of us swimming with seals in various modes of swim-wear. Another fine shore-fire lunch heralded a magical experience at Ardnave chapel on the W side of Gruinard Bay. In silence we absorbed the powerful and deep spirituality of the place before heading home in thoughtful mood. A wonderful day…
We had come from Essex, Germany, Worcestershire, Yorkshire, Somerset, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire – and places in between. But the essence of our Islay time became apparent as the days wore on…..a definable togetherness and a deep loving and caring - whether it related to getting lost, tending wounds or coping with loss. We were, each of us, enriched by a most special time.
Paul Heppleston
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1 at Finlaggan
2 Finlaggan Loch (Paps of Jura in distance)
3 on the Oa
4 on Mackenzie's Isle
5 from Mackenzie's Is.
6 The Sound of Islay
7 Saligo Bay (West side)
8 Ardbeg distillery (there's only one chimney here...)
9 Lunch at Ardnave Point (& a swim)
10 enough said...
11 the rocks remain....
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