Introduction
This is the fifth of seven posts covering our Island-Hopping Whisky Trail trip in August/September 2021.
| 4 | Isle of Islay |
| 5 | Isle of Jura |
| 6 | Cowal Peninsula & Isle of Bute |
A first visit
This was a new destination for both Bruce and me. Although Islay and Jura are separated by just a few hundred metres, they are quite different places: for starters, Jura’s population is only around 200 people. And whereas Islay tends to be gently undulating, Jura is a much hillier and relatively barren place, with the so-called Paps of Jura visible from most locations. The number ‘one’ figures prominently in any description of the island: one road, one village (Craighouse), one hotel, one shop, one church, one school – you get the idea.
We thought it would make for an interesting day out, and that the presence of the Isle of Jura distillery would add a new dimension to our ‘whisky trail’. In the end, partly due to ongoing Covid-19 closures, our visit was nothing like as rewarding as we had hoped. The distillery remained closed to visitors, while lunch facilities were even more limited than we were led to believe. Expensive fares on the council-operated ferry – to the extent that it formed a remarkable contrast with state-funded CalMac – also added an irritating factor.
