Caving at Bolsa – January 2003 OK – I admit it, I love these caves and this coastline but at new year – brrrr. Thank heavens for Glen and Ashley Dobson who wrote to me for advice and they and friends Jonathan and Lizzy went to the caves for a thankfully not stormy new year. It is wonderful when people visit us here and let me use their words and pictures to enhance this site. Normally as you have noticed I am sure I do not include recognisable pictures of people apart from me but I have permission to use these and they are so fantastic. The rest of the words on this page are his.

We ended up staying at the Port Askaig Hotel for our 1st night then early New Year’s Eve we set off to find the caves. Your directions were faultless. We even popped in for a coffee and a chat with Howard and Suzanne at the light house. After we left the lighthouse in search of the caves, there was nothing for quite a while, most of the caves were full of water. We eventually came upon a beach and in the distance were 2 perfect caves.

After we got to them we knew these were the ones for us. Large with flat sandy floors. We set up camp collected fire wood and not too long later it was getting dark. The night turned out to be very warm and cosy with the wind coming from the east meant the caves sheltered us very well and we had a nice big fire for the whole night with plenty of drift wood around. Dinner was basic but very welcome after our long walk, a few drinks and a ghost story or two later it was midnight and we brought in the new year in the best way we could have possibly imagined.

The night sleep was so relaxing we didn’t get up until about 10am, a leisurely breakfast and off back to Port Askaig for one more night on beautiful Islay. We almost considered staying another night in the caves but we would have struggled getting back for our ferry, so we reluctantly had to leave.

All the pictures on this page can be viewed at a higher resolution by clicking on them.