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| Islay and Jura Bike Trip
On Sunday 17th August I drove up to Ramsbottom and stayed with Andrew in the usual way, relaxing from the journey afterwards with a couple of pints at the Irwell Works Brewery. The following morning we drove north, all the way up to Kennacraig, the ferry terminal near Tarbert, and took the 18:00 ferry to Port Askaig on the isle of Islay (pronounced aye-la by the locals).
Port Askaig is a tiny settlement with just the one pub – the Port Askaig Hotel – the ferry terminal, a general store and about half a dozen houses. Our B&B was at Persabus Farm (£40 each) about a mile out of town so as soon as we had unloaded from the ferry (about 20:00) we had to mount up and ride up a moderately steepish hill in the gathering twilight to find it.
After dumping the bags we walked back into the village and had a few pints at the pub. The beer was Belhaven Best - not as bad as it has occasionally been. I tried an Islay Brewery bottled beer but it was off so I swapped it for another Belhaven. Some French blokes were jabbering away in the other bar and a foreign girl was sitting on her own with a laptop – it turned out later she was one of the barmaids. There had been several Japanese present on the ferry too so all very cosmopolitan. A bit of rain fell on us on the walk back to the B&B but we hoped for fairer skies on the morrow. Tuesday 19th August 2014 - Port Askaig to Bowmore We left Persabus Farm by about 9.30 and rode to Bridgend without any trouble. We then headed south-west to Portnahaven and after a few miles there was a shower, quite heavy briefly and enough for me to stop and put on the overshoes and waterproof jacket. After that though it cleared up and was quite sunny for the rest of the day (although it rained again later when we were in the B&B in Bowmore).
Along the way I saw two stoats chasing each other in circles on the road and some large raptor eating a rabbit right on the verge – it flew off as I approached but was so sudden and unexpected an apparition that I was unable to identify it. Of course at the time I didn’t know if the stoats were stoats, ferrets or weasels but we stopped a bit further along at a church in Portnahaven which had a sign up saying ‘Teas and Cake’ and inside were two Scottish ladies who affirmed that what we’d seen were stoats. They were quite common on the island, they said, and there were also adders, sea eagles, golden eagles and roe deer but no foxes. We had a cup of tea and a slice of carrot cake for £2 and the ladies chatted about Islay – pronounced ‘aye-la’ they said. Both had been born there (although one of them had lived away for a while, on the mainland and in England) and were suitably proud of it.
The ride to Portnahaven was quite easy, a bit of wind but barely any hills, just rolling roads. From Portnahaven we looped north then back to Port Charlotte and this stretch was a bit hillier. At Port Charlotte we had a sandwich at Yan’s Kitchen (Yan being a Chinese chap) and a short walk along the shore to look at the lighthouse. Andrew didn’t want to do the next loop away from the main road so we slowly rode back to Bridgend where we had an ice-cream then on to the final 3 miles to Bowmore and the An Cuan B&B which Andrew had booked us into for the night.
I had a truly horrible meal – Cajun vegetables, flatbread and chips – in the Lochside Hotel, accompanied by a truly horrible pint of beer – a locally brewed effort called ‘Finn…’ something. Then on to the Harbour Inn for a pint of comparatively wonderful Belhaven Best. GPS Stats: 44.9 miles 28.1 mph max 10.7 mph ave (moving) 2454 ft ascent 43.75 miles according to the bike computer Wednesday 20th August 2014 - Bowmore, Islay to Craighouse, Jura A dry, occasionally sunny day today, with a bit of a north-west wind. The ride from Bowmore to Port Ellen was easy, flat, well-tarmaced roads and with the wind behind us we made good time. We had a look round Port Ellen then set off back north via the parallel road, a single-track affair with passing places, not so busy nor as well-surfaced as the previous road.
We had passed the turn-off for Bridgend and were heading along the Cluanach/Cattadale road towards Ballygrant, slogging our way up a fairly long hill. Andrew was several hundred yards behind me and as I approached the crest of the climb I came to a fenced-off field of pasture with about a dozen bullocks in it. There was no-one else around and no signs of habitation anywhere, we were in the middle of nowhere. For no apparent reason the bullocks now all turned as one and stared at me as I got nearer. I carried on cycling away and suddenly the herd all ran away from me, charging slightly uphill, and then they turned and stared at me again.
Oh well, not to worry, I thought, they’re a bit skittish but there’s a stout fence between us. I cycled on. The bullocks, however, had been taking courage from each other and started to advance towards me en masse. I was glad of the fence at that point. The advance changed to a canter and they then veered off and retreated a bit. But not for long. Turning back towards me yet again they started towards me, a few tentative, threatening paces at first, slowly turning into a general run, moving quite fast. They soon reached a point where I thought ‘hang on, if they don’t stop now they’ll be into the fence!’ But to my horror they didn’t stop! Instead, crazily, they accelerated and charged directly into the fence, just a few yards before my front wheel. Time for me to stop! The bullocks hit the fence and stout as it was it had no chance of stopping them – not much could have done. Down it went immediately, and the insane beef rolled on over it, over the ditch and onto the road. One of them fell sideways in the melee there and I thought it must break a leg but it just got up again, apparently unharmed. Three or four of the beasts continued their charge right across the road and jumped like horses over the fence there and into a hay field where they trotted off apace but the remainder seemed dazed by what they had done and thankfully seemed to have forgotten about me (I was stationary, of course, rooted to the spot). They milled about then trotted off up the road in front of me and disappeared round a bend. Whew! I was quite shaken by this for I had been peaceably cycling along minding my own business and had done absolutely nothing at all to upset the livestock or draw attention to myself - and suddenly all that madness! I stopped in the road and Andrew caught up, having only seen the tail end of the dramatic events. At this point I knew that the bullocks were waiting up the road ahead of us and I didn’t want to go anywhere near them. I suggested we turn back and take the turning to Bridgend then continue up the parallel road to Port Askaig. Having just slogged up a long hill, however, Andrew was reluctant to go back and preferred to carry on and see if he could edge past the animals when he came upon them. I looked at the map and said that the turning was only a kilometer back and that I was going to go that way. In the end we both chose our routes and agreed to meet at Ballygrant. Unfortunately I had based my estimate of a kilometer on the gridlines of the map, thinking they were 1k squares. Really they were 10k squares so I had to go back about 6 miles in all and ended up doing about 8 miles more than Andrew who negotiated the cows safely and was waiting at his ease in Ballygrant, refreshed by coffee and food while I bashed sweatily round the long way. Still, he hadn’t seen the way the bullocks rolled over everything in their path and I wasn’t sorry I’d made the diversion – I was hot, sweaty, thirsty and knackered though! Anyway a cup of tea and a sandwich soon sorted me out and we hit the road once more, not taking long to get to Port Askaig where we got the 15:15 ferry across to Feolin on Jura.
Feolin is a ferry terminal building and one house. The road from there, the only road on Jura, was a single track one and there was a surprising amount of traffic on it considering there’s not really anywhere much to go. It was easy going though and we had no trouble in getting to Craighouse, our destination for the night. We were booked into the only hotel there, the Jura Hotel, which is just across the road from the Jura Distillery.
The bloke checking us in said there was no shelter for the bikes and to leave them by the side of the hotel but I took mine round the back and a woman there asked if she could help. When I told her what I was looking for she was happy to let me put the bike in the woodshed – Andrew put his there too when I told him about it. A helicopter turned up and landed in the hotel garden. About an hour or two after we arrived it started to rain. GPS Stats: 50.4 miles 34.9 mph max 10.0 mph ave (moving) 2949 ft ascent 48.5 miles according to the bike computer Thursday 21st August 2014 - Craighouse to Ardlussa and back The forecast for today was rain but apart from the odd shower everything was fine and we had some decent sunny spells. We left most of the luggage at the Jura Hotel and rode up the only road on Jura as far as Ardlussa. Several times we overtook a Highway Maintenance truck whose two occupants seemed to travel up the road arbitrarily choose a pothole and slap a dollop of black stuff on it. Like painting the Forth Bridge, I expect, a never-ending task. They were friendly enough though.
There were a lot more hills today and cumulative tiredness meant that once past Ardlussa and a sudden steep descent appeared – ie a hill on the way back – it wasn’t difficult to tell ourselves we’d come far enough. The return trip was straightforward enough – we had something to eat at the Jura Hotel, picked up the bags and rode the 8 miles back to Feolin. There we crossed over back to Islay and had a cup of tea at the Port Askaig Hotel whilst waiting for the ferry back to the mainland.
The 18.00 ferry took us back to Kennacraig on time, arriving around 20.00, and then we drove on to Tarbert, the nearest town, where Andrew had booked us a B&B for the night – Southcliffe, £75 for the two of us.
GPS Stats: 42.6 miles 33.2 mph max 9.8 mph ave (moving) 3267 ft ascent 42 miles according to the bike computer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
