In his day job he’s a taxi driver on Islay, but when he’s not behind the steering wheel Stuart is on the controls of his drone. As his job takes him all around Islay he has some opportunities to film all around island, showcasing some of the best of Islay. You can find his pictures on his Islay Drone Photography Facebook page. Not everyone is on Facebook, so luckily he’s also sharing some of his videos on YouTube. Like this one of the Laggan river:
Isle of Islay, Laggan river
Or this great 360° view of the Rhinns of Islay lighthouse on Orsay:
Islay lighthouse ( Portnahaven )
Or an Otter hunting for food on the wild shores of Islay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE-PpzEiL4w
Otter in the wild on The island of Islay, scotland
I hope you enjoyed these picks, you can find plenty more on the Islay Drone Photography YouTube channel. Videos of Islay’s distilleries, beaches, roads, landscapes, villages and more.
As mentioned previously the Islay Sessions 2020 had to move online due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Originally the plan was to hold them on the original weekend in November, but for various reasons that didn’t work out and the event had to be pushed out. Two days ago as of writing this it finally happened and the live stream went ahead. I put on my finest tartan, poured myself a wee dram and sat down in front of the computer to watch. While of course not as good as a real live event it was still a great evening! All credit to the organisers and the musicians for making this such an enjoyable event.
Greig Shaw was our host, I believe from his garden shed, which he had very nicely decorated for the event. Greig led us through the evening, talking about his late brother Fraser in whose honour the Sessions are now being held and very ably introducing the musicians. The musicians were be Daimh, Maeve MacKinnon, LB Salter & Jenn Butterworth and David Foley & Jack Smedley. Of course there was also a prize draw with some rare whiskies and other goodies.
The individual concerts were pre-recorded, which I think was a wise move. I’ve attended other online concerts, which were plagued with problems, sound and image being out of sync and more. Here the stream worked well and it was a joy to hear the musicians play as well as talk about their music.
As I had hoped the live chat was available, which I found very enjoyable. A lot of people I know personally as well as virtually were chatting while listening to the concert, many of the musicians joined in as well. Memories were exchanged, virtual rounds bought and more.
If you missed it or would like to see it again the Fraser Shaw Trust has made the whole event available on their YouTube channel (don’t forget to subscribe, if you haven’t yet):
Islay Sessions Complete Show
Thanks again to the Fraser Shaw Trust, all the organisers and all the musicians for such a wonderful evening. Hopefully we can see each other again in person soon for some real live music!
From Peru in my previous post back to Scotland with this post, to the far north of Islay. A year ago I shared a view from the lighthouse, this time I’ve found a nice drone video of Rhuvaal lighthouse. Some nice views of the lighthouse, the surrounding coastline and down the Sound of Islay:
Rhuvaal Lighthouse, Islay
Some nice work by Steven Muir, who has a few more nice Islay videos on his channel. I’m sure I will come back to his channel and share a few more videos.
Time for a visit to Islay’s neighbour Jura. I first spotted this on Facebook, then looked if I could find it on YouTube, which I did. The video in question is called “Across The Sound” and was created by Alfie Smith and Louis MacMillan. It shows Louis taking the Jura Passenger from Tayvallich to Craighouse and then going fell running on Jura, covering the famous Paps of Jura and Corra Bheinn. Just under 9 minutes well worth watching:
Across The Sound – Trig Point Films
The scenery is stunning, beautifully filmed by Alfie with Louis doing all the running. Not only that, there’s also some beautiful music by Talisk and Fourth Moon. I hope you’ll enjoy the video as much as I did.
Recently a quite interesting visitor was spotted around Islay and Jura, the Thunder Child II, a very impressive boat. The first XSV20 built by Safehaven Marine in Co Cork, Ireland. Unfortunately it had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but they hope to set a new record for a trans Atlantic crossing soon. This week they didn’t go that far, but visited one of the local attractions where they filmed a great video of the famous Corryvreckan whirlpool:
I’m pretty sure Thunder Child II could have easily coped with even wilder conditions, but even here the waves and views are impressive. I also found their way to “land” their drone after filming them quite interesting (you’ll have to watch the video to see how they do it), first time I’ve seen it done that way.
I can only recommend a boat tour to the Corryvreckan, I went with Jura Boat Tours in June 2019 and enjoyed every minute of it. Seeing the whirlpool up close is a great experience, even if it is running at less than half of its full strength.
While we don’t know when, if it’s going to be this year or next year, at some point we will be able to go walking in the beautiful wide open spaces of Islay, Jura and Colonsay again. Until then we have to watch videos like this, showing walking on mainly Islay, but also Jura and Colonsay, in all weathers, from beautiful sunshine to pouring rain:
There are many ways to walk on Islay: you can go on organised walking holidays like in this video with About Argyll, you can come for the Islay walking week or you can go just for yourself whenever you want and wherever you want.
Well, that didn’t entirely go to plan. When the Coronavirus lockdown started I had high hopes and plans to blog here more often and share all kinds of things. Initially that went reasonably well. And then I kind of lost my mojo as the weeks dragged past. Haven’t posted here since late April. But I’m feeling like I’m slowly getting my mojo back, so let’s give it another go. Starting with a long video hopefully helping you to wind down after a long day, best watched in full screen mode with a drink of your choice:
This video was filmed at the start of the lockdown, but even with some of the easing of the restrictions most of us won’t be able to watch a sunset like this for a while. Thanks to Scott for sharing.
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?
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.
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
