The magical Hebridean isle of Islay, a place steeped in history and
redolent of tales of love and tragedy, is undergoing something of a
rebirth. Lorn Macintyre unlocks some of its many secrets
ISLAY is the magical island of the Hebrides. Even before the boat out
of Kennacraig, Kintyre, enters the sound between Islay and brooding Jura
I seem to be able to scent a dozen distilleries on the breeze. As we
swing into Port Askaig I have a vision of my late father. In his final
years medicine could not help him, but put on a recording of the
glorious Islay Gaelic singer Margrat Duncan and his heart quickened with
delight.
There is something else on Islay to renew the heart. We had not driven
many miles out of Port Askaig when my wife braked to put her binoculars
on the geese in the field. Islay's geese population in winter is at
least three times the human population. We will see and hear a lot more
about these visitors later.
On the reverse of his map of Scotland of 1573 Abraham Ortelius wrote:
''Maxima omnium & nominatissima Ila est, frumenti ferax, & metalli dives
-- The greatest and most renowned is Ila, fertile for grain, and rich in
minerals''. The island is about 20 miles long and 20 broad, with Loch
Indaal and Laggan Bay biting into the land in the west and Loch Gruinart
running a long way in from the north. It lacks spectacular bens like
neighbouring Jura, with the highest peak at 1609 feet, but has 150 lochs
and enough peat bog to keep the whole of Scotland warmed for many years.
The minerals Ortelius referred to are the lead, copper, and silver which
have been mined on Islay.
We stayed with Alasdair and Rachel Whyte and their daughter Emma at
Glenmachrie Farmhouse, four miles from Port Ellen and six miles from
Bowmore, the island's capital. The Gaelic-speaking Whyte family are a
heartening example of Islay regeneration. Alasdair worked in
Bunnahabhain distillery on the island before being transferred to the
northern mainland by Highland Distillers. When he was made redundant the
family returned to their Glenmachrie farm on Islay.
The house has been extended and restored, with en suite facilities and
a library of books on Islay. After a Taste of Scotland dinner using
local produce (probably the best food I have ever had in the Hebrides)
you can have a ceilidh in the sitting-room, with Emma, in her last year
at Bowmore school, playing Islay airs on the accordion and her parents
telling you stories of island life and times.
One of Rachel's stories, which is rapidly achieving the status of a
folk-tale, and will translate nicely into Gaelic, is about the day she
and her family were at a window in Glenmachrie, watching the Prince of
Wales piloting in the plane to the airport that lies adjacent to the
farm. She didn't need to have second sight to know that something was
going to happen.
To help her guests tune into the ancient history of Islay, Rachel
sends them along the coast to Kildalton. There, in a small graveyard,
stands one of our national treasures. The nine-foot-high Kildalton High
Cross is the only surviving high cross in Scotland, carved about AD 800,
probably by a sculptor from Iona, from the local blue stone.
The biblical scene on the front of the cross, which more than a
thousand years of storms have failed to deface, includes the Virgin and
Child, and David and the Lion. The Red Indians rubbed their spines
against sacred stones to renew their energy levels, and Rachel is
convinced that contact with the Kildalton stone transmits the peace and
energy of the early Christians who worshipped under it.
But they also endured violence and death. A legend associated with the
Kildalton Cross claims that when Texa Island was raided by the rapacious
Norsemen, the monks and nuns fled inwards with the treasures of the
monastery and nunnery, leaving the abbot and abbess to plead with the
raiders. The Norsemen tortured them, then departed, leaving the people
of Islay to bury their martyred bodies at the present site of the
Kildalton Cross.
There is another great energy centre on Islay, associated with the
Lordship of the Isles dynasty, who ruled the Atlantic seaboard from the
twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, having taken control from their
Norse overlords. Their base on this loch a few miles west of Port Askaig
was on two islands, Eilean Mor (the big island) and Eilean na Comhairle
(the council island), where a programme of fieldwork and excavation has
been running for five years under the direction of Dr David Caldwell of
the National Museums of Scotland.
You pull yourself out on a ''boat on a rope'' to Eilean Mor. The
chapel, founded in honour of St Finlagan, friend of St Columba, is the
most important building on the island. Wandering about, one has the
sense that this was really a royal palace complex. The carved grave
slabs substantiate the traditional opinion that the wives and children
of the Lords were buried on Eilean Mor, while the Lords themselves were
interred on Iona. On Eilean na Comhairle, where ''14 of the Isles' best
barons'' gathered in council to arrange the affairs of their domain, are
the remains of a dun, the council chamber, and other buildings. Spend an
hour studying the display in the Visitor Centre in the cottage above the
loch, because this is part of the history of Scotland as well as of
Islay. The display of artefacts uncovered on the island includes a harp
peg which resonates with Gaelic history. Mairi Macintyre is one of the
voluntary workers determined to spread the fame of Finlaggan. She
studied history at Edinburgh University, ''but never heard a word about
the Lord of the Isles in a Scottish history course''.
At the battle of Traigh Gruinart in 1598 the army of Sir Lachlan
Maclean of Duart opposed the force of his nephew, Sir James Macdonald,
fighting over the ownership of land in the Rinns of Islay. Lachlan's
force was defeated, and he was killed by an arrow shot from the bow of a
little man called Dubh Shith -- Black Fairy.
Islay, like so many other west coast properties, passed into the
possession of the Campbells on the quicksands of clan disputes. As
Margaret C Storrie points out in Islay: Biography of an Island, Islay
had six Campbell of Cawdor lairds in 112 years, with long periods when
the lairds were minors, and the lands neglected.
Daniel Campbell, shipowner and merchant, proprietor of the Lanarkshire
estate of Shawfield, ''raised himself to . . . great importance, not
only in Glasgow, where for many years he was the most prominent of its
citizens, but also in Westminster, where he had considerable
influence''.
In 1726 ''Great Daniel'' Campbell acquired Islay. It is said that
three-fourths of the #12,000 he paid for the island came directly from
the ratepayers of Glasgow, as recompense for the wrecking of his house
by a Glasgow mob because he had voted for the malt tax.
''Great Daniel'' and the three Shawfield lairds who were to succeed
him improved Islay. Margaret Storrie writes that Walter Frederick
Campbell ''changed the face of Islay. He had reorganised landholdings,
surveyed and laid out new farms and farm buildings, established
villages, improved communications within the island, and spent time and
efforts on improving links to the mainland''. But when the potato blight
struck in the mid-1840s and rents were not forthcoming, the Islay estate
of the Campbells of Shawfield was sequestrated.
Walter Frederick Campbell must have loved his wife Eleanor dearly to
name the new village around Leodamus Bay in the south-east of the island
after her. When I saw Port Ellen from the deck of the paddle-steamer
Waverley on a spring day several years ago it looked as if the tide rose
into the houses on the curving front, and when I had 20 minutes ashore I
passed a community that seemed to be stopped in time, with a poster
warning against warble fly in a window, and a place called the Wee
Freeze. It may not have as much Snowcem lavished on it as other villages
on Islay, but Port Ellen has character, and Gaelic is still spoken in
the streets.
Bowmore, Islay's capital, established in 1768, was the first of the
island's modern villages to be planned, and one of the earliest planned
villages in Scotland. Its main street stretches from the sea up to the
landmark of the circular church, the work of a French architect who
allegedly left out corners from his design so that the devil would have
nowhere to lurk. It has a swimming-pool, its barrelled ceiling
perpetuating its former function as a distillery building.
Above the road out of Bowmore, along the shore of Loch Indaal outside
Brigend, there is a monument on a hill to Iain Og Ile, Young John of
Islay. John Francis Campbell has been lauded as ''the world-famous
father of Celtic folklore studies'', a collector of Gaelic stories.
Beyond the monument through the trees is the white bulk of Islay
House, where Iain Og was never to live as laird of Islay because of the
sequestration of his father. James Morrison of Basildon Park, Berkshire,
purchased Islay in 1853 for almost half a million pounds.
By 1857 Islay was divided into five estates. In 1964 John Granville
Morrison, MP for Wiltshire, was created Lord Margadale of Islay, taking
his title from a favourite sporting area in the remote north-eastern
part of the island. But the Morrisons are out of Islay House, which is
now owned by an American.
My pilgrimage down the Rinns of Islay in search of the great voices of
Gaelic song halts at another model village, Port Charlotte, begun in
1828 and named after Walter Frederick Campbell's mother. After a meal in
the excellent Croft Kitchen we climb the hill to the Museum of Islay
Life in a former church. Here you can see the old manual telephone
exchange which kept Islay folks in touch with one another (in Gaelic, of
course) before automation came. You can also see the juxtaposition of
leisure and labour: a parlour game from Islay House, The Raiders by
Airship to Potsdam, and a lobster creel of hooped hazel wands. Look also
at the equine carpet slippers worn when horses cut the lawns of Islay
House in the days before ride-on motorised mowers.
The Islay Field Centre tells you the controversial story of the Islay
geese. About two-thirds of the Greenland population of 35,000 barnacle
geese winter on Islay. The numbers increased in the 1960s and 1970s
through changed farming practices involving the use of artificial
fertiliser and more sheep producing the short swards attractive to the
geese.
Greenland white-fronted geese winter entirely within western Scotland
and Ireland. The total population increased in 10 years from 15,000 to
30,000, and about 10,000 of them are on Islay. They used to feed on
bogs, but the majority of Islay visitors are now feeding on recently
improved pastures.
David Bellamy's defence of the Islay geese has become one of the
legends of Islay which some of the islanders would rather disown. A
Scottish Natural Heritage scheme now offers all farmers and crofters on
the island cash payments relating to the number of geese that are
feeding on their land, and some farmers are collecting thousands of
pounds annually. If you don't want to participate in the scheme, you can
scare the geese, but they'll soon be back.
You can watch the geese on the RSPB's 4000-acre Gruinart Reserve.
There is plenty of other wildlife on Islay, and you may be fortunate to
see a chough with its red bill and red legs.
We drive down the Rinns towards another model village, Port Nahaven.
It was created as a fishing village, and its whitewashed houses round
the harbour look like holiday cottages. Many of them are owned by locals
who have had to go to the mainland for work, but who come home
faithfully in the holidays.
This is a village sustained on Gaelic song. Margrat Duncan was from
this area. Mary C MacNiven and Donald MacLeod, also Mod gold-medallists,
are still in good voice there. Margrat Duncan soars on the car cassette
as we head back to Glenmachrie Farmhouse for another superb dinner.
There is one more pilgrimage, down the headland of the Oa, to the
tower-like monument erected by the American Red Cross to commemorate two
major disasters. On the night of February 5, 1918, the SS Tuscania,
carrying American troops to Britain, was torpedoed by a German submarine
off Islay, with 266 lives lost. In October of that same year more than
400 soldiers and seamen died when the armed mercantile cruiser Otranto
collided with the steamer Kashmir off Islay in a gale. This is a sombre
place where winds break the waves against treacherous cliffs, and where
Islay men, hardy as their flocks, farm the hilly land.
Why have I not given you a conducted tour of the whisky distilleries
of Islay? Because everyone knows about them, and Jack McLean writes far
more eloquently and authoritatively about them than a teetotaller like
myself.
Islay cheese enhances the reputation of Islay as Ban Righ, Queen of
the Islands. My father wrote a famous poem on Islay cheese, which is
reputed to have aphrodisiac properties. Here is a taster on what happens
when Islay cheese is exported:
An old and shaking Genoese
His pension was collecting,
Ate just one bite of Islay cheese
And now his wife's expecting.
There is an old Gaelic prophecy that says: ''An ruai a threigeas na
duthchasaich Ile beannachd le sith Alba -- when the natives forsake
Islay farewell the peace of Scotland.'' May they be singing their Gaelic
songs -- and may the geese also remain vocal -- for a long time to come.
FACTFILE
* SAYING it: Gaelic speakers on Islay call it eel-uh. English speakers
may use eye-la, as in island, ''with a pleasant pause between syllables
and an upward lilt at the end,'' Margaret Storrie advises.
Getting there: By Cal-Mac ferry from Kennacraig, Kintyre
(inquiries/reservations: 0475 650000). By plane from Glasgow: Loganair
(tel 0345 222111).
Accommodation: Islay has a wide range of accommodation, from bunk beds
to hotels. Rachel Whyte, Glenmachrie Farmhouse, Port Ellen, is on 0496
302560. Ask the helpful Tourist Information Centre at Bowmore (0496
302560) to direct you to the type of accommodation you require.
Eating out: Generous spread of restaurants throughout island. Sample
Kilchoman House, 20 minutes from Bruichladdich. Family-run, local
seafood, venison, vegetarian. Walking on the Oa? Drop into the Old
Granary, Kintra Farm (seasonal).
Recreation: the Machrie Golf Course, three miles north of Port Ellen.
Birdwatching: Gruinart Reserve. Want to inspect the wreck of the
Otranto? Speak to Gus Newman, Islay Dive Centre, on 0496 302441. Too
cold to swim? Enjoy the pool, sauna, and keep-fit facilities in the
MacTaggart Islay and Jura Swimming-pool, Bowmore.
Guidebook: Visitors Handbook, #1.75 plus postage from Tourist
Information Centre, Bowmore. For the sweep of Ban Righ's history,
Margaret C Storrie, Islay: Biography of an Island (copies from the
Museum of Islay Life, Port Charlotte, Islay PA48 7UA).
Islay cheese (the alleged aphrodisiac): sold on the island and
mainland shops. Islay cheese (the poem): in Angus Macintyre's Ceilidh
Collection (Famedram).
Distillery tours: follow your nose.
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