Islay: day trip to Jura

Although we’d visited Islay before, we’d never been to its neighbour, Jura. It’s a short hop on the ferry from Port Askaig to Feolin – there’s a timetable, but no booking. However, if there are too many cars for one trip, as there were the day we travelled, the boat will make the five minute crossing several times to clear the queue.

While we were watching our own ferry depart, we also saw the big ferry coming in to Port Askaig from the mainland, and were sad to think that in a couple of days we’d have to get on it at the end of our holiday. There was a good view too of Caol Ila distillery, one we hadn’t had time to visit.

Jura is 28 miles long and about 8 miles wide, but most of it is mountainous, bare and infertile, and thus very sparsely populated (196 inhabitants…