Jura, Scotland 6/6 - 6/9

We have spent the last couple of days on a mooring off of the small town of Craighouse on the island of Jura. Jura has a year-round population of 190 and most are involved with the local distillery. The only way for tourists to get here is to take a small seaplane or a ferry to the neighboring island of Islay and then another ferry. There are a series of mountains on the island and the three tallest, conical ones are called the Paps of Jura. The few people who come here, climb them. The Paps and the distillery are the main attractions. 

When we arrived, the first order of business was to go to the distillery, try a few samples, and replenish our supply. 

The next day we decided not to do the Paps because of the unsettled weather and we took an unnamed trail I saw on the Alltrails site to a nearer mountain. All was fine until we reached the telephone tower and the trail became an animal trail. We forged ahead through the boggy grassland, known as blanket bog, up the hill. We were rewarded with beautiful views and several deer sightings. From the summit, we could see Islay, Gigha, The Mull,  and the other Inner Hebrides. If it was clearer we could see Northern Ireland. We also saw a high mountain lake that I knew had a trail from the road so we headed cross country again through Cotton Grass, orchids, and other alpine flowers and mosses. There was an amazing stone wall that ran for miles across the island. The time and effort to make it was staggering. All was fine for a short while until we hit a waterfall and the trail evaporated. Once again we bushwhacked through the hummocks, sometimes falling up to our knees in dark, tannin-stained water and sphagnum moss. Made it to the road and had a celebratory Guinness at the hotel with a nice English couple. We even had hot showers there and the hotel gave us huge fluffy towels when we asked.

  The weather pattern of blustery rain squalls has continued although today we woke up to a steady howling NW wind from the Arctic. We decided to stay put another day.

On our second full day in Jura we went to an exhibition at the community center celebrating the 75th anniversary to the day of the publication of 1984, written by George Orwell when he was living in a cottage on the remote northern end of Jura after the war. An artist collected 1984 volumes of the book and arranged them in boxes in a sculpture-like way. There were foreign editions, regular editions, special editions, movie VHS, and artistically altered editions. That night we came back to launch a gin made on the island that had botanicals that related, in some way, to the book or George Orwell.  As you can imagine, only 1984 bottles were produced. There were samples, local food, live music, and readings.