Port Ellen resident, Katie Featherstone, is a freelance writer. Her work focuses on slow forms of travel, which are more sustainable for both the environment and local communities, as well as walking guides, Scottish history, and promoting small businesses. She spends her spare time cycling around—surprising people with her squeaky brakes, tramping through boggy bits of Islay in her walking boots, and can occasionally be found in the Ardview.
Katie’s guidebook to the Inner Hebrides, which you can buy in Bowmore’s Celtic House or Port Ellen’s Blue Letterbox post office, might prove useful for visitors to Islay and Jura, as each island has its own dedicated chapter, with sections on local history, options for accommodation and food, and interesting places to visit. She includes some of her favourite walks, all the most spectacular beaches, information on the whisky distilleries, and historical sites ranging from the impressive and well known (Finlaggan, Kildalton Cross, and Dunyvaig Castle—to mention just a few) to those which you might otherwise miss: Jura’s most enormous standing stone, ruined villages from before the Clearances, and evidence of prehistoric people like the roundhouses at An Sithean.
Bowmore
If you have even more time to explore, our neighbours Colonsay and Gigha have their own chapters too.