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The story of Islay, Jura and Colonsay is one of the most fascinating amongst all the Hebrides. They have had substantial human occupation since earliest times and man has left many relics across the islands, from tools and artefacts of mesolithic times to the modern-day distilleries of Islay and Jura. From the period in-between survive chambered cairns, iron age forts, magnificent early crosses, enigmatic carvings, early monasteries, relics of the Lordship of the Isles, deserted townships and shielings, planned villages, corn mills, kelp kilns and lead mines and much else besides.Far more than a gazetteer, this book is based on a great deal of intensive primary research and local knowledge and is essential reading for local and tourist alike.Islay, Jura and Colonsay is part of Birlinn's Historical Guides series, which will eventually cover the whole of Scotland.
60 years ago, the beautiful island of Jura provided George Orwell the solitude and inspiration he needed to write his political masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 2006, the Scottish Book Trust established their Jura Malt Whisky Writer Retreat Programme to give writers the same peace and space and it is now recognised as one of the best creative opportunities available. In 2007, authors Will Self, Janice Galloway and Philip Gourevitch took a month out, writing and living in the luxurious Distillery Lodge, to work on specially commissioned stories, published here for the first time.
This work focuses on the largest of the Hebridean islands. Peter Youngson explores the history of Jura which was probably the Hinba of the early church, and discusses its geographical situation which helped it survive through the Viking period and into that of the Lordship of the Isles.
The most westerly point of Argyll, Islay and Jura occupy a special place in Scotland's history, home to MacDonald, 'Lords of the Isles', as well as to the famous blend of Bowmore's Whisky Distillery. The fields and hills hold an abundance of wildlife, making it an ideal spot for farming, fishing and rambling, while its ruins speak of the impact of the nineteenth-century's mass emigration and the clearances. Lord George Robertson brings his perceptive eye and lens to these different aspects of two of Scotland's most beautiful islands.
The Isle of Jura is, nowadays, home to only a few hundred people yet every corner of this dramatic landscape is steeped in the stories and legends of those who have lived there in the past. This text introduces readers to both its wide open and 'empty' spaces, and its more intimate corners.