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Old Islay

Bowmore down to the Pier - The sea has always been the main means of communication with the outside world for the Ileachs. This picture of Bowmore pier shows a Clyde Puffer tied up to it. These flat bottomed ships were the islands lifeline bringing in coal and barley to the distilleries and taking the mature whisky away to the Glasgow markets. The picture also shows how little Bowmore has changed - the hotel next to the pier is now a private house and the Imperial Hotel is now called The Harbour Inn

Puffer - The arrival of the puffer with supplies for the villages must have been a great social event. There would have been only the most basic of roads linking Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte with Bowmore. Their crews would have been viewed by the local population as strange furriners from distant places many of them would never see. Glasgow for instance. Their expoits were immortalised by Neil Munro's Para Handy tales - originally written as a series of short stories for a newspaper. A BBC TV adaptation of Para Handy was partially filmed in Port Charlotte and Bruichladdich during the early 1990's


Puffer 2 - If there was no pier available these tough little ships were able to beach themselves at low water, unload onto the sand via their on-board derrick into carts drawn by horses and then float off again at high tide. The very important chap with the watch chain in this photograph was identified by a lady visiting the Port Charlotte Hotel bar as her Grandfather - the last manager of Loch Indaal Distillery.


Bowmore Crowd - Another photograph contrasting modern life in Bowmore with life perhaps one hundred years ago. The buildings are exactly the same - but there are far more people, and they are all talking to one another. No television, no internet - no motor cars. The ladies look wonderful in their long dresses, the gentlemen magnificent in their whiskers. How many horses are there in this picture? Fertilising your garden would have been no problem.


Peat Cutting - This wonderful image must surely have been posed by the photographer. The men are so immaculately dressed - they look as if they have simply taken their jackets and ties off on their way back from the kirk and stepped onto the moss in their best shoes. They may have been proud of their looks and wished to look smart for their photo, but there is nothing fake about that peat bank. Cutting peat like that is a real skill, and fearsome hard work.


People with fish Bowmore pier - This remarkable shot shows the gulf between our comfortable modern lives and that which we used to accept as normal in the recent past. Check out the footwear on these children. It is also some time since it was possible to catch fish like this in Loch Indaal. These flatfish would have been caught using hand held baited lines trailed from small sailboats called skiffs. The catches disappeared soon after the advent of modern trawlers which emptied the Loch in no time.


Hotelskiff - This rather gloomy shot of the nowadays very beautiful Port Charlotte Hotel has two fishermen sat in a skiff in the foreground. These elegant little boats have all but disappeared now, although there is still a gentleman in the village whose father built them. In the background is Loch Indaal distillery. The bonds in the foreground are derelict now, but the ones just visible behind are full of Bruichladdich - and you may be taken to visit your cask here should you be smart enough to purchase one. Proud owners of casks who visit Islay are taken to these bonds once a year to check how their spirit is coming along. They are allowed to take a 10cl sample away with them. For reference purposes only of course....


Port Charlotte Stooks - This shot is taken from Octomore Farm Cottage. Again, note the very smart lady posing for her picture among the stooks of corn. The village of Port Charlotte was dominated by Loch Indaal Distillery - which finally closed in 1929 - one of the early victims of the crash on Wall Street of the same year. You can see the two pagodas and the great chimney. Most of the whisky bonds are still there, now owned by Bruichladdich and full of Bruichladdich whisky. Also in those bonds are those few casks of Octomore whisky, probably the most heavily peated whisky ever - produced at Bruichladdich during 2002 and 2003 and now maturing in the salt air...

Bruichladdich Distillery from the  North East. Note the  ostentatious house of the owner - William Harvey -  as tall as the kiln!