Click on the image for the full-sized picture
The main gate to the High School
Kildalton Church and Churchyard
the rise of the Lade which provides the water to make the whisky in
Bowmore Distillery
lichen on a rock at Machir beach
a gravestone in Bridgend graveyard
ferns grow on a tree in bridgend woods.
Loch Gorm, one of the sites for the European Fishing Competition.
Site Mission Statement, History and Policy Site Policy – click here to jump to the policy statement Mission Statement (gotta have one!)
Site History This site began as a school site for Islay High School around 1990 (maybe a bit earlier). At the time it was first created it was coded in raw HTML on an Archimedes A3000 computer of all things. The site developed nicely but rapidly became something of a personal project and for that, and a variety of other reasons, the site was closed down and I moved the Islay portions over to my webspace on my longtime ISP – Freeserve. There is a remnant of the School site left with my famous spinner logo. This original site is now devoted to the Husthwaite family name. This historical past accounts for some of the odd folder names, the original was based on two frames so most of the HTML is in a folder called still “frames”, later I discovered the error of frame based sites and I now use tables only. Some of the original photographs were by pupils and were not attributed including the Dunyvaig picture I use as a kind of site logo, if you see one of your pictures on the website let me know so I can now properly give you credit. The site continued to develop from home; why(?) because I like Islay and Jura, because I think that it deserves to be seen by more people and also because the site has led me to many friendships and in a tiny community like this it is good to develop some friends outside the Island. The site gradually grew as I had time and really began to expand when I bought a scanner. The later acquisition of a digital camera also allowed a real expansion of the pages. A year ago I ran out of the free webspace that Freeserve provides and decided to get a more appropriate domain name – this Visit Islay site that you are looking at now. This I bought from One and One and this provides me with a comfortable 100 Megabytes of webspace that should keep me going for a few years. I can thoroughly recommend them if you need a domain name. Spelling is all UK English (sorry American guys). Late in 2001 I met Anne, who continues to be an important part of my life and she translated large chunks of the site into German. In the Summer of 2002 Steve and Barbara visited from Milan and Steve and I walked over to Bolsa and that page was created. In the Autumn of 2002 I began the Road to Islay section of the site to help travelers along that beautiful stretch of road. At Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve) 2002 I was visited by JJ and Mark from Las Vegas and Wolfgang from Köln (Cologne). They provided me with a wealth of photographs which are being used in the Road to Islay section of the site, the Finlaggan, the Machir beach and also on this page. Also that Hogmanay, Glen and Ashley Dobson visited the caves at Bolsa and contributed a history of that visit. I stopped on my way home to talk to two friends gathering seaweed at Gartmain and that page came into being. February 2003 saw the start of a new project to follow the season in Bridgend woods. March 2003 – After a relaxing trip to Germany I have added a new visit to the woods at Bridgend saga. March 2003 I got bored at lunchtime and added a History, Mission statement and Policy page, it has four previously unpublished pictures. An Orwell enthusiast in Canada encouraged me to do some work on the George Orwell page, sorely needed. April 2003, after a slightly rocky start the organisers of the European Fishing Competition 2003 and I exchanged a few e-mails and I started a project to record the sites involved in the event. Whether or not it is of use to the organisers, the recording of these beautiful lochs is a great activity in its own right. The first and opening page is Ballygrant Loch. On 4th of May I walked in Bowmore in the evening and caught a fine sunset. By 5th May 2003 I had seen the season in Bridgend Woods through from the first snowdrops to the last bluebells in 6 pages, Anne said “but you write about every little flower or dam bus :-D” which is true, but it entertains me. Perhaps it was because I added the monstrous bus and ferry timetable. Here is a link to the start of the Bridgend woods cycle. 25th May 2003 – I walked to Claddach from Portnahaven, I also added some pictures to Portnahaven page including a picture of the Portnahaven seals. Today; Saligo Beach
24 May 2003 – I added a page on the village and distillery at Bunnahabhain. August 2003 – I have been quiet since May enjoying the good weather and getting some chores done. Recently I have been able to add a few pages, I added pictures to the Kildalton page, I also added the beaches at Claggan and Lossit, distilleries at Ardbeg and Bruichladdich. The Jura pages get new material for Craighouse and Jura House Gardens.
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