Isle of Jura

The long and narrow island of Jura is one of the wildest and most mountainous of the Inner Hebrides, its entire west coast uninhabited and inaccessible except to the dedicated walker.

The island's distinctive mountains the Paps of Jura seem to dominate every view off the west coast of Argyll, their glacial rounded tops covered in a light dusting of quartzite scree. With just one road, which sticks to the more sheltered eastern coast of the island, and only one hotel and a smattering of B&Bs, Jura is an ideal place to go for peace and quiet and some great walking.

Anything that happens on Jura happens in the island's only real village, Craighouse, 8 miles up the road from Feolin Ferry, where the car ferry from Port Askaig on Islay arrives. The village enjoys a sheltered setting, overlooking Knapdale on the mainland - so sheltered, in fact, that there are even a few palm trees thriving on the seafront. The tiny Isle of Jura distillery is situated here and welcomes visitors.

If you're just coming over for the day from Islay, and dont fancy climbing the Paps, you could happily spend the day in the lovely wooded grounds and walled garden of Jura House five miles from Feolin Ferry.

In 1946, the writer George Orwell lived here a remote farmhouse called Barnhill, at the northern end of the Island, as he worked to complete his most famous work, '1984'. Barnhill lies 23 miles north of Craighouse and is as isolated today as it was in Orwells day. If youre keen on making the journey out to Barnhill, you might as well combine it with a trip to the nearby Gulf of Corrievrechan, one of the world's most spectacular whirlpools which lies between Jura and Scarba, to the north. The best time to see the water whirling is between flood and half-flood tide, with a southerly or westerly wind, and the best place to view it from is Carraig Mhor, 7 miles from Lealt.