Tag: Argyll

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 Fyne Venison Weekend

Islay Fun

On my journeys to Islay I usually stop at Fyne Ales to buy some of their beers and if available some meat. For obvious reasons that isn’t happening at the moment and hasn’t happened for a while. I’ve previously ordered some of their beers online, last week I decided to add something else, some meat.

Picture of vension burgers, sausages and steaks from Fyne Ales
Fyne Ales venison selection

I ordered a Venison Sizzle Box, which was dispatched and arrived this week, just in time for this weekend. The box includes steaks, burgers and sausages. Of course I also ordered some of my favourites beers, namely some Jarl, Avalanche and Easy Trail.

While most of the box went into the freezer for later consumption I kept one of each for a “Fyne Venison Weekend” this weekend. I started with the steak, which turned out very nice. Lean yet juicy, very tender. Great taste. Tomorrow I’ll have the burgers and I’ll finish on Sunday with the sausages.

Drone video of the Rest and Be Thankful (Route to Islay)

Islay on Video

While we obviously can’t travel to Islay when I’m writing this I hope there will be some travel possible in H2 2021. Until then we have to enjoy videos in the safety of our homes. Here’s one of the well known Rest and Be Thankful on the A83, the main route to Islay. It doesn’t mention any of the troubles with landslides and other problems, so if you want to forget about all that this is a nice enjoyable view:

Rest and Be Thankful

I hope you enjoyed the video and it gave you a bit of an escape.