Drovers

After a packed +36 hour day in crammed trans Atlantic fights, and a walking tour through Paisley to "fill in" the six hour layover at Glasgow, and then the commuter hop to Glenegedale on Islay, we left Islay Airport late afternoon in our red VW rental, for our accommodations at Port Askaig Hotel. 

March 22, 2017  The view that greeted us at Port Askaig.  The Paps of Jura in background.

In essence, the hotel IS Port Askaig.  Besides its piers, a RNLI lifeboat station and a new ferry terminal built to look old, Port Askaig basically means--the hotel and bar.

   

March 23, 2017  Port Askaig Hotel and Old Port Pub (our red "hire" VW seen on right)

The hotel proprietors also manage a building across the road which has a few "detached" rooms for the busier tourist season.  Those rooms are above the small general store and Royal Post Office concession.  And, a gas pump exists.  The entire Port Askaig complex sits on a rather narrow flat directly below rock cliffs.

March 23, 2017  Port Askaig Hotel, store and post office from its fishing fleet pier

Port Askaig Hotel is an old "drover inn" dating to the mid-1700s--at least most of it.  It was used to accommodate "Duriach" cattlemen (as natives to Jura refer to themselves) transporting livestock to and from Jura to markets on Islay, which lies immediately across the Jura Sound.

March 23, 2017  Paps of Jura across the Sound from Port Askaig

Part of the hotel (its Old Port Bar) is claimed to be well over a century older.  Evidently in renovations, its masonry was found to be different.  In any case, it is advertised as the oldest continuously licensed "premises" on the island (everyone needs an angle).  Its license is said to date to the late 1500s.


The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) does have a Life Boat Station at Port Askaig, in a new building.  Where these lifeboat men reside is a guess.  On duty, doubtless they are barracked at the RNLI station.  As for their permanent places of residence, perhaps they are from the nearby small community of Keils further inland up on the rough grasslands a few kilometers from the port.

Lifeboats get serious in Scottish waters.  After all, the North Atlantic can be treacherous, especially when pushing its might against the omnipresent skerries, rock shoals and tidal races like Jura Sound.  

March 23, 2017 RNLI Station, Port Askaig

Port Askaig RNLI boasts of a "Severn Class" lifeboat, the largest lifeboat vessel class operating in U.K. waters.  Severn craft are "all sea conditions" capable.  With speed often being a critical element in oceanic rescues, the Severn vessels reach 26 knots under favorable conditions, and protect their propellers and shafts with tunnel housing to ward against damage in shallow rocky littoral waters.

Severn craft are also self righting.  If heavy seas do capsize them, their keels roll back over to bottom, like a kayaker.  A neat trick...but also a crucial technology to save lives in the North Atlantic.

March 23, 2017  On the fishing wharf at Port Askaig

We took dinner (awkwardly quiet) in Port Askaig Hotel's Snug Bar, more or less reserved for hotel guests.  Our "nan Gall" accents clearly pegged us as "not from around here".  The clientele totaled perhaps four working men on business.  Not exactly a talkative lot.

Notwithstanding, one of the culinary highlights of the Hebrides is their seafood.  And in this, Port Askaig's kitchen did not disappoint.  You cannot go there without having the seafood.  Literally caught fresh that day, Hebridean seafood alone is worth the price of the trip...even if you did nothing else on vacation other than eat.  Take that to the bank.

Evening, March 22, 2017 Our seafood at Port Askaig, with Tennent's lager.

After dinner, we struck up a conversation with a hotel guest who said he moved years ago (1970s) from north England to mainland Scotland.  Upon finishing my Tennent's, at his recommendation I switched to a pint of Bellhaven's Best, a classic pub beer with a lower alcohol content.  It is intended for friendly conversation, not for drunkenness per se.  Though it depends on the length of the conversation, I suppose.

March 23, 2017  MV Eilean Dhiura returning to Port Askaig from Feolin, Jura

Before our third pint, Darla excused herself (the politics segment gave her her leave).  In fairness, with our biological clocks set on Pacific Time Zone, we were fully eight hours behind Greenwich Mean Time.  The trans Atlantic fight and then the commuter hop to Islay had eliminated an entire 24 hours (plus) of sleep.  "Jet lag" is not an insignificant factor when visiting the Hebrides.  It takes a couple days to sort it out. 

March 23, 2017  Post Askaig's Royal Mail box

Even so, I stayed on.  The hotel guest was genuinely interested in Idaho.  Keeping up with current times (since President Trump was then only two months in office), he was naturally interested in American political views.  But he was more curious about ordinary things, like driving V8 Fords.  He asked if I drove a V8.  When I told him yes, he replied "I knew it!"  Apparently, large blocks are his quintessential idea of the "American West"...Route 66 and all that. 


As it turned out, the gentleman was waiting at Port Askaig for the morning ferry over to Jura.  He was a service technician for automatic garage doors, which surprisingly enough can be somewhat high tech.  Things break, and need fixing.

Our conversation made an interesting counterpoint in ordinary commerce, beyond those V8 Fords.  Business in the Hebrides and Argyll is laid back more than here in the States.  It has to be.  Everything is controlled by the ferry schedule.  A Hebridean commute has significant "recesses" as it were.

For example, from mainland Scotland, to service the garage/warehouse door was a two day travel proposition.

March 23, 2017  MV Eilean Dhiura at the Post Askaig slip; the Argylle & Bute operated Jura ferry

To get to his job site on Jura with a work van required driving to Kennakraig (which is several hours out of Glasgow over narrow roads).  At Kennacraig vehicles must queue up for the large CalMac ferry (usually the MV Finlaggan) to Islay's Port Ellen.  That adds another couple hours, on the water and in loading/offloading.  And if you do not get to Kennacraig early enough, your wait is several hours more if your place toward the the back of the vehicle queue happens to be beyond the ferry's loading limit.

March 25, 2017 Vehicle queue for MV Finlaggan, CalMac's Port Ellen-Kennacraig ferry

Taken together, this accounts for the better part of a work day...just in one way travel.  From Port Ellen on southwest of Islay, it's another half hour or more drive north to Port Askaig.  Once there, in order to get to Jura, one must wait in yet another vehicle queue for the small Argyll & Bute ferry (MV Eilean Dhiura) to Feolin on Jura.

The wait at Port Askaig "may" encompass only an hour, since the Feolin ferry does its run across the Sound in about a half hour, counting roll on/roll off.  However, as is infamously said...it depends.

It depends on the weather, naturally.  But it also depends on how many vehicles, and their relative size, are queued.  Feolin ferry can take four small cars if stuffed, but fewer larger vehicles, like work vans.  So wait times depend on the number and type of vehicles queued.  And also, importantly, it depends upon their cargo.  

March 23, 2017  View from the breakfast room at Port Askaig; a fuel truck rolls onto the Feolin Ferry

We arose for breakfast at a somewhat leisurely hour, well rested, and made our way down to the hotel breakfast room, which itself was a treat.  Its bay windows (literally) offer views on morning activity at the pier.

It was somewhat surprising that the conversationalist workman, over a few pints of Bellhaven's Best the night before, came to breakfast later than we did.  His "first thing in the morning" did not directly translate into his particular hurry to get on the Jura Ferry.  And for good reason.

He was queued behind a number of vehicles, one of which happened to be a fuel truck.  That "always" holds the Jura line up, he said.  The reason is that, under Council safety regulations, hazardous cargoes (like fuel oil) must make the ferry crossing alone.  Not even walk-on foot passengers are permitted with them.  So, no one was going to Jura very fast this morning.

March 23, 2017  Obsession, a fishing vessel moored at Port Askaig

We bid the service technician an auld lang syne and headed out to explore Islay.  In 2017, we  exchanged Christmas cards with the gentleman.  He had mentioned he was nearing retirement, and had bought a  place in the Canary Islands some years back.  He intended to avoid high taxes in the U.K. during his fixed income retirement.  So, not all offshore finances are exclusively the domain of the rich and famous.  Average Joe's also benefit, it seems.  


Lastly, it should be noted that large CalMac ferries do call at Port Askaig albeit on a limited schedule, bound for Colonsay and Oban.  Port Askaig situated on Jura sound is protected.  Thus it serves as an alternative port whenever rough weather or fog bound visibility preclude the use of Port Ellen, Islay's main commercial terminal.

March 23, 2017  MV Eilean Dhiura