Contrast that cheerful picture with the bleak vision of humanity committed to words on the island 70 years ago. So disapproving clouds aside, it’s a pretty sunny outlook for Jura. Now the population is finally, slightly, gradually, increasing. It’s a happy, reviving blend for an island like Jura which for centuries, and like so many of these remote islands, endured a slow, painful decline as its people emigrated – to the Scottish mainland and other mainlands, notably Canada worn down by the hard earth, the temperamental sea and the callousness of aristocratic landlords. Like with tweed, the once endangered cloth that now adorns everything from Nike trainers to my iPad case, Scottish whisky producers are marrying local integrity with international marketing savvy. For an extremely ungetatable place, Jura is a rocky little epicentre of cosmopolitanism. The voices in the bar are Russian, South African, Swedish and South Korean. An Australian hedge fund manager is building a US$50 million (HK$390 million) luxury resort and golf course a few kilometres down the coast. Yet this distillery recently passed from the hands of an Indian entrepreneur into those of a Chinese drinks magnate based in the Philippines. Nowhere could seem more formidably local. The congregation of whitewashed buildings huddle together in the shadow of the place we’ve come to see: the Jura distillery. As we chug over to Craighouse, the main – okay, only – village on Jura, inky masses of cloud scud across the skies admonishing the sun like a disapproving church elder. Trading and military vessels sped to and fro between the power centres of the Viking lands to Ireland, Scotland and far south into England. ![]() Cast back 1,200 years and you’d be in one of the busiest trading hubs on the planet, a true maritime Silk Road. This spot feels like the edge of the known world – but that’s today. And maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on St Cormac. I suppose St Cormac’s Cave was the Scottish equivalent to, say, a fourth-century monk living on top of a pole for 10 years. How much more solitude, isolation and austerity did your average eighth-century monk need?Īdherents of the early Christian church were famously competitive when it came to out-austering each other. (If you’re looking for a British Shag, this is the place.) The Isle of Jura was described as ‘extremely ungetatable’ by the writer George Orwell. Eilean Mòr’s only residents these days are seabird colonies. ![]() We are on the tiny island of Eilean Mòr in the middle of the Sound of Jura, 270 kilometres northwest of Edinburgh. There’s a low, dark opening in the mossy rock and, in front, a small sign:Ī cave or retreat such as this is characteristic of the Celtic church, and used by a monk of even greater austerity than his community provided. The distillery is now owned by United Breweries Group of India.I scramble down a rough, boggy path and pick my way into a small clearing carpeted with velvety grass and yellow daisies. By 1963 their work was complete and the fortune of the island had changed, the distillery had offered new employment and the island began to flourish once again, Delme-Evans had introduced taller stills allowing the distillery to create an eclectic mix of malts, a feature that helped differentiate Jura from its island neighbours. It wasn’t until the 1950’s when, in a bid to entice new inhabitants to the island, two local estate owners Robin Fletcher and Tony Riley-Smith rebuilt the distillery, employing a genius by the name of Delme-Evans to weave some architectural magic. A victim of neglect and economic gloom, it wasn’t long before the distillery fell into disrepair. It was this apparition that persuaded him to reverse this punitive measure and erect a distillery at an old smugglers’ cave in the hamlet of Craighouse in 1810. She berated him over the lack of the golden liquid on the island. Twenty-nine 29 years later, as legend has it, Laird Archibald Campbell awoke sober, it must be said in the middle of the night to see the ghostly figure of an old woman hovering over his bed. Oloroso Sherry Casks (1) Oloroso Sherry Casks (1 product).ex-bourbon and Oloroso sherry barrels (1) ex-bourbon and Oloroso sherry barrels (1 product).(1) American White Oak ex bourbon casks, then six different virgin oak casks sourced from across various regions of France. American White Oak ex bourbon casks, then six different virgin oak casks sourced from across various regions of France.(1) American White Oak ex bourbon barrels, this whisky is then beautifully enriched by superior Premier Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux red wine barriques from the South of France. American White Oak ex bourbon barrels, this whisky is then beautifully enriched by superior Premier Grand Cru Classé Bordeaux red wine barriques from the South of France.
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