(New) IslayBlog.com, a blog about the Isle of Islay, Scotland
Cask Strength since 2006
Let’s visit some Islay beaches from the air. Stuart Lewis visited Islay in 2018 and filmed a variety of beaches ranging from the Singing Sands over Kilchoman beach to the small beach at the pier in Port Charlotte from his drone. Take a look:
I hope you enjoyed this aerial tour of some of Islay’s beautiful sunny beaches. Which beach is your favourite?
The second post trying to support Islay businesses during the Coronavirus lockdown, which as we heard in the news today could last 6 months in some shape or form. Today something for those of you with a sweet tooth (especially if you also like your Islay/Jura whisky/gin): An Gleann Tablet.
An Gleann was founded by Jane Mitchell almost 15 years ago as a small cottage business on the Rhinns of Islay a couple of miles outside of Port Charlotte on the road to Portnahaven. As the name says, they make tablet, a Scottish speciality. Being on Islay there’s of course a connection to the famous Islay whisky with the Whisky Connoisseur series. I hope you’ll find something you like.
According to a Facebook post while the shop is closed to visitors the online store is open for business. Practising physical distancing and staying safe.
It’s time for another nice Islay video, I think. This time created by Naoki Otsuki from Japan (and Canada). The video takes us around Islay, showing various kinds of scenery. It’s a bit different than many other videos, looking closer at the finer details and sometimes taking a different perspective. I very much enjoyed it, I hope you will as well:
Naoki spent five days on Islay, check out the video description on YouTube for the details of what they did while on Islay.
As mentioned in my post about supporting Islay businesses during and after the Coronavirus pandemic I’m planning to write about various Islay (and Jura) based businesses over the coming weeks and months. I’m hoping that they will be able to continue working in some way provided it is safe and sensible (and permitted) to do so and in some cases still fulfil online orders. If they can’t I’m hoping we can help them to rebuild once life starts to return to normal. With that let’s get started, admittedly with a rather obvious choice considering how often we’ve been asked to wash our hands:
The company in question is of course Spirited Soaps founded by Ailsa Hayes over a decade ago. As the name implies the main product is …. soap. Soap with an Islay touch.
Spirited Soaps is working with the various Islay distilleries, offering a variety of solid and liquid soaps. There’s also a very nice lip balm, which I use after my Islay visits (I think the combination of sunshine and wind makes my lips dry out). Take a look and hopefully you’ll find something you like.
Quite tired tonight after an exhausting week, so no difficult posting tonight, just a simple video with a bunch of nice Islay views. There are plenty of drone videos out there now, I think this is one of the better ones. Nice and calm, allowing us to really enjoy the views of some of the famous sights of Islay:
I hope you enjoyed the views of the Rhinns of Islay lighthouse, Portnahaven, Bowmore (incl distillery and Round Church), Seal Bay on the south coast and the American Monument on the Oa
When wrote that I wasn’t going to be able to visit Islay for the foreseeable future because of the Coronavirus pandemic I mentioned that I was I aware this was going to hit many local businesses, but that I didn’t have a solution to help them. I also believe (and fear) that we’re going to have to live with the various restrictions related to “social distancing” (I know, horrible term, I hope we can find something better) for quite some time. Just today Calmac announced that they wouldn’t accept any new advance bookings until 15/Jul. From everything I’ve read and seen so far I wouldn’t be surprised if certainly the first phase will last 4-6 months and there will be impacts for at least 12-18 months, depending on how quick a vaccine can be delivered. I know nobody wants to hear that, but I believe (and fear) that’s realistic. So what can we do to help local businesses? I still don’t have a solution (and probably never will), but at least there are some first shoots and ideas:
While the main hit will of course be on direct tourism businesses like accommodation providers, tour guides and transport businesses (and I freely admit I don’t have clue how to help them) there will be a secondary impact on a lot of smaller makers. Small businesses with one or only a handful of employees, producing a variety of goods, often related to local materials and traditions. They often heavily rely on tourists buying their products, be it in their own premises, be it at tourism attractions. With hardly any or even no tourists coming at the moment they lose a large chunk or even all of their income. At least some of them also sell online (or will soon) and at least as long as they can still ship their orders this is where Rhoda’s idea comes in:
Rhoda (who among other things runs Tiree Tea) has set up isle2o – Support the Scottish islands during Covid-19 by shopping from the comfort of your sofa! It’s a directory of island based businesses which sell online, so you can order from home to support them. As of writing this there are five Islay based businesses and one Jura based business listed, but I’m sure there will soon be plenty more. So why not take a look at the listings and if you find something you fancy place an order?
You might have noticed that for this post I’ve created a new category, “Islay Businesses”. There’s of course a reason for that. I’m going to try to promote a number of Islay (and Jura and Colonsay) businesses here over the coming weeks, in particular those who also sell online in some shape or form. It might help, it might not, but I’m certainly going to try. In the current situation I think we’ve got to just try everything possible.
As for obvious reasons we can’t travel to Islay at the moment and the Islay festival 2020 was cancelled today I will try to ramp up posting here again. I’ll try to find and share as many Islay things as I can over the coming weeks (or even months), so that you don’t have to search for it. Of course I will not find everything, so if you come across something you think worth sharing by all means let me know. Cats, kittens, dogs and other cute animals are always a bonus, so the video I’m going to start with contains a cat:
I hope you enjoyed the video and spotted the Islay cat. If you have a cute cat/ dog/ other animal, can film it being cute and upload it to YouTube let me know and I’ll share it.
Unless you live in a cave (or the Big Brother house in Germany) this post probably won’t contain any huge surprises. With a heavy heart I’ve just cancelled my upcoming Islay visit in April. Regular readers and anyone who knows me will be aware how important in particular that visit is to me in the annual calendar, as it is the Islay walking week. I also fear my usual visit in June might not happen.
The reason is of course the dreaded Coronavirus/ Covid-19/ whateverthecorrectnameis. It’s all over the news, all over mainland Europe countries have gone into lockdown, the UK is now starting to (belatedly?) follow suit. The latest guidance as of writing this is “PM says everyone should avoid office, pubs and travelling”. While important to me personally I admit travelling to Islay for a holiday is “non-essential travel”. My employer has implemented a working from home where possible policy to support “social distancing”, providing regular updates, since Friday I’m working from home. Keeping in mind my major heart surgery a few years back and a few other factors I believe I’m in the “high risk” category, so I’m going to be safe rather than sorry. Travelling most of the length of the UK is not something I’d be comfortable with in these circumstances.
This whole situation is obviously also very bad and concerning for many small businesses on Islay, in particular in the tourism sector and related other businesses. If tourists don’t visit Islay these businesses lose their income, in worst case they might even go bankrupt and lose their business. I understand all of the Islay distilleries have closed their visitor centres until further notice, another hit to Islay’s tourism industry. I don’t know what the answer/ solution to this is, all I know is that continuing as if nothing was happening is not an option. I don’t think anyone would want the UK to be in a situation similar to Italy where hundreds of people die and medical staff in the hospitals have to make decisions who they are going to save and who they are going to let die because they simply don’t have the capacities.
What I do know is that the money I’m not spending now will find its way to Islay at some point. As soon as it is safe and possible to travel again I will return to catch up.
Dave went on a Scottish Grand Tour in 2019 with I believe his partner and some friends (as well as a German Shepherd dog). On that tour they took their caravan to Islay, staying at the Port Mòr campsite. They visited a variety of places, which they filmed from the ground as well as the air. Here is the video Dave edited:
A nice mixture of views from their adventures and from the looks of it a very happy and excited dog playing on the beach and at Finlaggan. Thanks for sharing, Dave!
Haven’t blogged here for far too long again. So let me take you out on a walk on the Oa in the south of Islay. Cavavaux (not sure if that’s his name or if it means something else) has a good number of hillwalking in Scotland videos on his channel, including some from Islay and Jura. Here’s the first one I thought worth sharing:
Some great views from the American Monument and from Beinn Mhor, the highest hill on the Oa at 202m. Brought back some nice memories. I hope you’ve enjoyed the video as much as I have. Thanks for sharing, Cavavaux.