Jura, Argyll

Jura is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. It is separated from the Knapdale district of Argyll to the east by the Sound of Jura and from the island of Islay to the south west by the Sound of Islay. To the north, the Strait of Corryvreckan, with its notorious whirlpools, separates Jura from the island of Scarba. Jura extends 27 miles north east to south west and is 8 miles at its widest. It rises to a height of 2571 feet at Beinn an Oir, one of the three distinctive conical peaks known as the Paps of Jura. Jura is nearly bisected in to 2 separate islands by Loch Tarbert. Compared with its fertile and more populous neighbour of Islay, Jura is mountainous, bare and infertile and it is covered largely by vast areas of blanket bog, hence its very small population. Most of the island's population live in Craighouse which sits on a bay on the east coast protected by a string of islets known as the Small Isles. A 19th century whisky distillery here was reopened in 1963. A single road follows the east coast as far north as Inverlussa and a track continues northwards from here past Barnhill where the novelist George Orwell spent much of his final years and where he wrote “1984”.

Date: 5th November 2017

Location: view from the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry between Port Elen, Islay and Kennacraig, Argyll