Isle of Islay Scotland http://isleofislay.posterous.com Information, blogs and images from the Scottish Isle of Islay posterous.com Thu, 12 May 2011 10:07:00 -0700 An Enchanting Walk on Islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/an-enchanting-walk-on-islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/an-enchanting-walk-on-islay

I guess many people, especially tourists, aren't aware of this but there is a wee and rather hidden woodland walk near the RSPB reserve at Loch Gruinart. The walk itself is around one mile and it is a very sheltered walk. The entrance of the walk is the same as for the RSPB hide. Today we decided to do this walk because the wind was quite strong and it turned out to be a gorgeous walk. The Blue Bells are out now and they are at least as pretty and numerous as in the Bridgend woods. The track itself is really nice, you can find many different flowers and plants and every now and then you have beautiful views over the Gruinart Flats. I even spotted a Roe Deer! It was quite an enchanting walk as you can see for yourself from the various pictures I took.

 

 

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Fri, 06 May 2011 10:11:00 -0700 Loch Gruinart Nature Reserve Islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/loch-gruinart-nature-reserve-islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/loch-gruinart-nature-reserve-islay

We were in for a treat today, the weather forecast wasn't all that good but it turned out to be a lovely sunny day, at least where we were. We spent the best part of the day at Loch Gruinart near Crois Mhor, the tin roof cottage, where we had a picnic. Loch Gruinart is one of Islay's RSPB nature reserves. I'm always amazed by the beautiful colours of the water and the wildlife as you can see in the images below. I'm even more amazed by the fact that we saw only one other car during the whole time that we were there, not that we mind of course! We found the many people later in the afternoon while doing the weekend shopping at the co-op in Bowmore. Glad I'm home now, writing up this blog while enjoying a Colonsay Lager. This reminds me, I still have to post images of Colonsay, will do so later this weekend. If the weather is fine we will be visiting the gardens of Foreland House on Sunday! Have a nice weekend!

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Mon, 17 May 2010 10:51:19 -0700 Another Cracking Day on Islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/another-cracking-day-on-islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/another-cracking-day-on-islay

Early morning, around six, I saw some of the most beautiful views I have ever seen on Islay with low mist in the valleys and higher up on the mountains as well.  The rest of the day was sunny as well while the temperatures were higher than in the last weeks. It was a very relaxed and pleasant day with some shopping in the morning and in the afternoon we’ve spent a couple of hours at Kilnave chapel just sitting there, enjoying the warm sunshine and admiring the fabulous views over Loch Gruinart and towards Killinallan Point. The blue colours near Ardnave were unbelievably blue as you can see in one of the images. There was also plenty of wildlife to see. We saw many eiderducks, gulls, waders, choughs (at Ardnave), geese, buzzards, two hen harriers and many other birds. What I notice today is that the midges are coming out, especially in sheltered places. So far we haven’t visited any of the distilleries yet but that will hopefully change tomorrow when we have planned to go to Lagavulin, Ardbeg and Laphroaig. More about that tomorrow!

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Thu, 06 May 2010 14:14:41 -0700 Bright and Clear day on Islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/bright-and-clear-day-on-islay http://isleofislay.posterous.com/bright-and-clear-day-on-islay

As you can see from the images the weather has been amazing. It was crystal clear, especially the western half of the island. I have picked a few images to give you an impression while I took almost 400 pictures today. The images show the tin roof cottage, Crois Mhor at Loch Gruinart, Killinallan point with incredible blue colours of Loch Gruinart, the cruise ship Quest passing the Sound of Islay and the Swan at sunset taken at Loch Indaal tonight, my personal favourite.

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