Jura Tours
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A Special tour package for the Isle of JURA
Your vehicle for
the tour is a 16 seat Mercedes Mini Coach.
Getting to Jura is a tour in itself! Travelling
to Islay first, then a wee ferry to Jura, where
we will be met by "a (local) Diurach" Alex
who will also be our guide.
PACKAGE ONE; a whole island tour which will take about three and a half hours, this will begin with a visit to the photographic exhibition in the church, (the exhibition shows photos of Jura during the last 150 or so years with captions about the people and places of interest), this is followed by a tour of Keils crofting township pointing out some of the very early croft houses and drawing comparisons with the new, we visit the ancient burial site of Cillearnadill (picture shown right) where we will see carved gravestones from the Knights Templars, the Campbell mausoleum and the gravestone of Gillour Macrain said to have kept 180 Christmases in his own home and died about 1645. Our next stop is the Corran sands to see where many Diurachs left their Island home in the 1800’s to travel to America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand knowing they would never return but hopeful of a new start and a better life where they would be the masters of their own destiny and not at the mercy of the rich lairds. There is a beautiful poem “Farewell to Jura” written by Jessie Scott in 1871 when she left Jura for North Carolina and we will see this on a cairn here. We will then drive northwards stopping at Evans walk giving us a fantastic 360 degrees view with the majestic Paps of Jura directly behind us and then south over Small Isles Bay to the Scottish mainland with the island of Gigha in the foreground and the mountains of Arran towering over the Scottish mainland, weather permitting we should even see the north east coast of Ireland, we can also trace the route of the Jura Fells Race from the viewpoint, this is a gruelling 17 mile race that covers 7 separate peaks including the three Paps of Jura, the race is sponsored by the Jura Distillery and attracts over 200 runners to the island on the last weekend in May and is one of the many festival weekends we enjoy.
As we continue north
we will follow the drove road to the
slipway at Lagg where the cattle
where taken from Islay, Jura and
Colonsay to the mainland and then walked
almost 100 miles to the market at
Falkirk, Lagg is over 200 feet above sea
level and gives us spectacular coastal
views north to Ben Cruachan on the
Scottish mainland, another fantastic
view is looking down on Tarbert Bay,
here we will see the house where David
Cameron ( the British Prime Minister )
stays when he visits Jura , we will also
see Lady Nancy Astor’s ( the first
British lady MP in the times of Sir
Winston Churchill ) study where she
wrote her memoirs. As we wind down the
steep brae to sea level we will see the
ancient burial ground of Kilmhoire and
standing stone at Tarbert, all along the
route there will be many photo
opportunities with close ups of the Red
Deer that Jura is famous for, Buzzards,
Hen Harriers and Owls are also a common
sight and if we are lucky we may even
spot a Golden Eagle or Sea eagle.
At
Inverlussa cemetery we will see the
Gravestone of Mary Macraine ( a
descendant of Gillour Macraine mentioned
above ) who died aged 128 years old, we
can follow this up with Tea On The
Beach, this consists of a table at the
roadside with a walkie talkie in a
tupperware box, a menu with instructions
offers various teas, ground or instant
coffee and a selection of home made
cakes that are to die for, select the
lemon drizzle or the Jura whisky fruit
cake and you will not be disappointed.
We will then return to Craighouse.
END OF WHOLE ISLAND TOUR
INCLUDES; ferry costs from Islay - Jura return, guided coach tour, with packed lunch, plenty of question and answer time, photography time. This will be a part of a longer stay on Islay as part of a whisky tour, it will also include a distillery visit while on Jura. PACKAGE TWO; The exact same tour as shown above, with the addition of staying overnight on Jura, return ferry next day to Islay.
Burnside, Knockrome - This was one of the first schools to be built on Jura |
FURTHER INFORMATION ON THIS TOUR jura@mcleanscotland.com |