Home Isle of Islay (Scotland) 2000   I visited Europe in 2000.  After visiting several other  countries I flew to Glasgow, Scotland, from where I took  a bus 106 miles to Kennacraig on West Loch Tarbert,  from where I took the ferry to the Isle of Islay Islay (pronounced "eye luh" is the southernmost island of  the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. It is  famous for its 8 distilleries and its whisky According to the Whisky Exchange,   "Islay is known as  ‘The Queen of the Hebrides’ – and is certainly the  reigning monarch of a typically smoky, peaty style of  single malt whisky" 1 The ferry lands at the sleepy town of Port Ellen 2 The town's most prominent feature is a string of row houses   3   4   I stayed at Mick's B&B, which is No. 91 in the Lennox St. row (photo from Google Maps street view) Mick has since retired from the B&B business     While staying at Mick's, he drove several of us guests a few miles east, to look at Kildalton Church an early Christian church dating from the late 12th or early 13th century This is where my gr gr grandfather William Gilchrist married Sarah McCuaig in 1824 Thanks to my cousin Martin Gilchrist for the photos of the church and cross.  He visited Islay in 2017 The church is of note partly because beside it stands the High Cross of Kildalton, one of the finest early Celtic crosses in Scotland It dates from the 8th century   5 During my stay in Port Ellen, I hired a taxi to take me several miles southwest onto the Oa peninsula... ...which is "an area of mostly crofts, which are smallholdings on which the owners graze sheep and  hill cattle," according to Dorothy Carmichael, proprietress of Nook & Cranny Holiday Cottages, a B&B in the Oa   Bare bones version of Angus Gilchrist family tree, ending with Gen 5   6 this is Upper Cragabus, one of the local crofts and where, possibly, my gr gr gr grandfather Angus Gilchrist was born 7   9 Looking back at Upper Cragabus as I began walking the country road back toward town   28 past the several buildings of Middle Cragabus 29 Again, Middle Cragabus     30 Again, Middle Cragabus   9b and on to Lower Cragabus (shown here), from where I got a ride back to town   10 Near Upper Cragabus is this lovely knoll   11 Standing on top of that knoll, I shot a 360-degree series of photos starting with pointing to Upper Cragabus 12 and incrementally rotating to the right each photo slightly overlapping the previous one     13 showing the [largely] denuded landscape but also showing (here and in the next few frames) the planting of pine forests, done by the local farms     14 until... 15     16     17 18     19     20 21 ...until we again point to Upper Cragabus     Other scenes from the Oa 24     25 Former Church of Scotland, together with former school and schoolhouse (all closed because of declining population in the Oa)     27 The farmhouse that serves Coillabus Farm           26 This is a view down Glenastle (see map in previous frame) from the road outside Coillabus Farm     31 At the beach at Lower Killeyan, below the crofts at Lower Killeyan 32 Again at Lower Killeyan     23     Lee's home page