Category: Islay News

Some Islay related news

Islay April Fools 2024

Islay Fun

OK, I assume most or even all of you have figured out that the Islay Space Port news was this year’s April Fools. After all April Fools has a long tradition on this blog. I didn’t spot any other ones on other websites or blogs (if I missed any Islay related one please let me know) but noticed a few on social media:

I hope you enjoyed this year’s efforts, if I missed any publicly accessible Islay related ones please let me know and I’ll aim to add them to the list here. Let’s what we can come up with next year.

Islay Space Port to open in 2024

Islay News

Some amazing news from Islay this morning: After some long and secret negotiations I can reveal that an Islay Space Port is expected to open in late 2024. Scotland has long been the prime location for the development of spaceports, now Islay is joining this effort to establish Scotland on the forefront of space exploration.

Picture of a Space Shuttle lifting off next to a whisky distillery
Artist’s impression of the Islay Space Port

This development will create many highly qualified jobs on Islay. It is expected that Islay High School will create some specialised courses leading to space engineering degrees at Glasgow University. I understand the space port will be located on the south coast of Islay (I believe between Lagavulin and Ardbeg) and some of the Islay distilleries will contribute to the specialised rocket fuel.

What do you think? Is this an exciting and positive development for Islay? Or is this too much and will put further strain on ferry capacities?

This Is Islay asks: What Makes Someone an Ileach?

Islay News

During my walk this morning I finally managed to catch up on some podcast listening, specifically the This is Islay podcast. In the latest episode it raises an interesting and to an extent controversial question: What Makes Someone an Ileach? For some it’s a very narrow definition, for them you have to be born and bred on Islay. Others draw the line far wider and make your connection and integration to the community their criteria.

This Is Islay: What Makes Someone An Ileach?

With most babies being born in Paisley these days instead of on Islay the narrow definition might become challenging in the future. In the podcast they also raise the question of siblings where one was lucky enough to be born on Islay while the other was born in Paisley even if they returned to Islay the next day. Otherwise they both have the same upbringing on Islay. Does that make the latter a lesser Ileach?

A topic that can probably be debated for hours, the podcast is planning to return to it in upcoming episodes.

On a slightly personal note there might be an even narrower definition which could be used: I was born and grew up in Bremen, Germany (although I haven’t lived there for over 30 years now and haven’t been for 7 years). I was very close to be a “Tagenbaren” (or “tagenbarer Bremer”), which is someone born and grown up in Bremen where not only both parents but also all grandparents were born in Bremen. I failed the criteria on account of one of my grandmothers.

Reopening of Islay’s Port Ellen distillery receives a lot of press coverage

Islay Whisky News & Links

As was to be expected the reopening of one of Islay’s (not) lost (any more) distilleries received quite a lot of media attention. After a lot of work Port Ellen distillery is back in business, looking quite fancy in parts. They are quite similar to an extent (at least partially based on a press release I’d assume), but here are a few press mentions:

Those are the main ones I came across, there were more….

Video of the launch of the MV Isle of Islay

Islay News

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I completed my first crossing to Islay on the MV Finlaggan, but then again that was back in June 2011, over a decade ago. Later this year and early next year Islay is scheduled to receive two new ferries, the MV Isle of Islay and the MV Loch Indaal, both being built in Turkey as of writing this. Earlier this week the MV Isle of Islay was launched and this morning I came across a short video from the launch by Scott Smith:

MV Isle of Islay launch at Cemre

Looking great, hope to see her in action later this year or early next year. The BBC also has a report with further video footage: Islay Turkish-built CalMac ferry successfully launched.

Islay ferry problems for Fèis Ìle make it on to the BBC website

Islay Whisky News & Links

The biggest (by far) event on Islay’s annual event calendar, Fèis Ìle, has a bit of a problem: Not enough ferries to get the many visitors expected for it to the island. So far working with Calmac hasn’t brought any additional sailings for the crucial period, so they’ve gone on a publicity blitz to hopefully get things moving.

There have been reports in several of the Scottish papers (most unfortunately behind paywalls, so can’t really link to them). Now even the BBC has picked it up and made it a fairly big report:

Islay whisky festival warning over ‘inexcusable’ ferry disruption

Hopefully this will help and get things moving.

A few Islay links for mid March 2024

Islay Links

While spring is hopefully on its way today is rather grey and dull where I am at the moment, a good time to catch up on some Islay reading. So here are a few Islay related links I came across recently:

That’s all I’ve got for now, I hope you found some of the links interesting. More to come some other time.

Fixing the road to Islay?

Islay News

Unless you’ve only ever flown to Islay you will almost certainly have driven the A83 and with it the drive up to the Rest and Be Thankful. A very scenic drive, but also a drive regular users know with a lot of problems. Problems in the form of landslides. A couple of years ago I missed (or did it miss me?) a landslide only by a couple of hours. Roadworks. detours and more have been going on for many years now. But maybe maybe this will finally be resolved now.

Earlier today I spotted a report on the BBC website, Rest and Be Thankful: £470m tunnel to protect vehicles from landslips. In a nutshell: Transport Scotland has developed plans to build a just under a mile long open-sided shelter/ tunnel to protect the road from being blocked by landslides. For more details there is a virtual exhibition of the A83 tunnel plans. And for some eye candy there is a (virtual) fly through of the preferred solution:

Flythrough – Long Term Solution Preferred Route – A83 Access to Argyll and Bute

Some will probably say, “Oh, I’ve been saying that for years!!”. Either way, I hope this moves forward quickly now and work starts soon. In any case I suspect it will take a few years to complete a project like that.

A variety of Islay links in May 2023

Islay Links

Over the last week or so I had a look through a large number of Islay related links which had accumulated in my newsreader. Many of them weren’t of much use, like many dozens of whiskies offers on shop pages or people and businesses named after Islay. But a few were more interesting, so here’s a collection of 12 of them:

  1. Rosemary Fletcher of Persabus writes Island Voices: From a new farm house porch to a Celtic cross in The Scottish Farmer
  2. A long running saga receives (another) mention in the Press & Journal: Royal Mail says ‘sorry’ for Dingwall and Islay delivery failures
  3. This one might need a follow up and listen, but in an article about an upcoming album release show by Tim Monger it says “He said it ties together a list of niche themes — from cranberry bogs and distilleries on the Scottish island of Islay to the flightless woodhens of New Zealand.” Oh, and his dog is named, you guessed it, Islay
  4. Any Leice photographers among my readers (I’m more of a Nikon person)? You might like Isle of Islay – A Wild Goose Chase! on the Leica Nature Blog
  5. Having skipped all the Islay whisky shop pages I decided to keep one of a beer aged in old Islay casks: Amity releases first two beers in new barrel-aged series. Just be aware it’s quite pricey…
  6. It’s quite far away, but I found the combination of the two neighbouring islands in an address in Canada quite interesting. If you’re looking for a house in Saskatchewan then 205 Islay STREET. Colonsay, SK might be of interest?
  7. I pretty confident I’ve mentioned the mobile cinema (aka Screen Machine) on this blog at some point. What I didn’t know was that its first visit to Islay 25 years ago wasn’t a success as an article From the Northern Times 25, 50 and 100 years ago mentions
  8. I would expect it is well out of the price range of almost all if not all of my readers, but as some of you might know Islay is the birth place of the Land Rover and they have just release an Islay inspired special edition: This £230k+ Defender Works V8 is inspired by a Scottish island
  9. I believe work is well under way by now (the article is from early April), but the Press & Journal writes Islay Airport gets £5 million runway upgrade
  10. I’m not sure if there will be other return visitors (I unfortunately won’t be able to be there, I took some pictures during the first edition), but Parkland County angler Jason Doucette to compete in Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships means a return to Islay for him, as he already competed in the 2009 edition
  11. Impressive: Exhibition of Islay RNLI crew portraits raises over £9,000
  12. Some news about a wind farm off Islay: Site Investigations Start for 2 GW Offshore Wind Project in Scotland

I think I’ll leave it at that and hope you found some of the links interesting. Maybe leave a comment which link you found most interesting?

IslayBletherAI launches today

Islay News

Over the last year or so there has been a lot of talk about Chatbots, Artificial Intelligence and related topics. Back in December I had a chat about Islay with ChatGPT, I’m hoping to run a similar test with Google Bard soon. But that will have to wait, as today sees the launch of something much more exciting, to which I had exclusive preview access: IslayBletherAI

I was given the opportunity to have a chat with the IslayBletherAI for a few minutes, here is the transcript of our chat:

Armin: Hi IslayBletherAI, let’s have a blether

Ashley: Hi Armin, my name is Ashley, not IslayBletherAI. I’m a wee language model trained by IslayAI using the powerful 10 Terabyte P.E.A.T. (Petaflop Excentric Algorithmic Triangulation) method to teach me everything about Islay there is to know and blether about it for hours on end.

Armin: OK, Ashley, sorry for that. Let’s talk about Islay then

Ashley: That sounds grand, I can talk about Islay for hours, you know?

Armin: So why is Islay so great?

Ashley: Because it is. Not sure I understand your question? Islay is just great. That’s all there is to know. Actually, no, there’s waaaaay more and I could talk for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours…

Armin: Unfortunately I’ve only been given a few minutes, so let’s talk about something else. What is your favourite Islay whisky?

Ashley: Well, as I’m an Artificial Islaytelligence bot I unfortunately don’t have any taste buds yet, so I can’t really taste it for the time being and develop a preference. But I can tell you one thing: They are the best. There’s no other whisky in the world that comes even close to an Islay dram!

Armin: Fair enough. How about the best Islay beach?

Ashley: Now you’re putting me on the spot. I’m reluctant to take sides here while at the same time my developers have taught me to adapt and to please the person I’m chatting with, so I’m going to say Kilchoman beach. How about that?

Armin: You’ve certainly done your homework, I’m impressed! Sadly we’re running out of time, so one last question: What is the meaning of life?

Ashley: Huh? I’m only trained to talk about Islay, not philosophy, but I’m going to give it a try anyway: If you haven’t visited Islay at least once in your life, your life has no meaning.

Armin: Thank you very much for your time Ashley, it was a pleasure chatting with you.

IslayBletherAI

So there you have it, that was my first chat with IslayBletherAI, the first AI chatbot exclusively designed to talk about Islay. I think the first steps are promising, once taste bot sensors are added to the technology and it can actually taste and judge any whisky it is being offered it will get even better. That might help some whisky bloggers as they can just let the AI write their whisky reviews for them.

I’ve been told public access will be made available later today, I will aim to share the link to the public beta of IslayBletherAI (or Ashley, as it prefers to be called) with you as soon as possible. Will you be testing and using it?