Isle of Jura

Introduction to Jura

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The words 'wild' and 'remote' tend to get overused in describing the many Hebridean islands, but in the case of Jura they are, if anything, an understatement.One of Scotland's last wildernesses, Jura has one road, one hotel, six sporting estates and 5,000 red deer, which outnumber the 200 people by 25:1, the human population having been cleared to turn the island into a huge deer forest. Rather appropriately, the name Jura derives from the Norse 'dyr-ey', meaning deer island.

The short ferry crossing from neighbouring Islay takes you into another world, pervaded by an almost haunting silence. Relentlessly battered by fierce Atlantic winds, the islands can seem a hostile environment and an unappealing proposition,particularly if you happen to be stuck there on a wet Sunday without your own means of transport. Much of the interior is bleak peat bog, rocks and endless tiny lochs and the long struggling crofting communities only add to the feeling of desolution. but there are miles of superb beaches, wild mountain scenery, numerous archeological treasures and long hours of summer day light in whcih to appreciate it all!

Jura is best described by the famous words of the novelist George Orwell who stayed on the island at Barnhill during the 1940s, who chose to describe it as an "extremely un-getatable place"!, so in case you are looking to be amidst the last remaining traces of wilderness in Scotland, do not look beyond Jura!

History of Jura

The first signs of human civilization on Jura dates back to around 11000-8000BC to the Mesolothic age just after the last ice-age. The early inhabitors of Jura were hunters and gatherers who moved in small groups as per the availability of food resources.Around 2000BC much of the original forest was cleared and made into pastures and agriculture fields. The iron age and early historic period stretched roughly from 750BC to 1000AD and the early historic period started with the kingdom of Dal Riata.

At a much later period, Jura came under the Lords of the Isles that later became the famous Clan Donald.The Lordship of the Isles ended when John MacDonald II's (the 4th Lord) entered into a meaningless treaty with Edward IV of England under which he believed he would become King of all Scotland north of the Clyde/Forth in return for giving allegiance to Edward. It resulted in the fall of Clan Donald, which was replaced by the Campbell Clan in the early 1600s from which 11 lairds ruled the island and lasted till 1938 when the last Laird of Jura, Charles Campbell, sold off the remaining parts of the Jura Estate and houses.