Excerpts from issue 53/22 8 August 2026
Jura's late ferry removed without notice
Jura Community Council has expressed its disappointment on learning that Argyll & Bute Council has withdrawn the 9:30pm Jura Ferry sailings. Its disappointment has been exacerbated by the fact that it learned of this timetable change from members of Jura community and not directly from the council.
The Community Council contacted Argyll & Bute Council on Friday 17 July, requesting an urgent update on the situation to which it failed to gain a response. Trying once again on 23 July, the Community Council received a reply from the Executive Director the following day, 24 July, confirming that removal of the 9:30pm sailing was due to issues with crew hours of work bolstered by MCA rules.
Bizarrely, Argyll & Bute's Executive Director admitted the council had been unaware of this operational change, though Jura Community Council was keen to point out that copies of the original correspondence had also been sent to council officers who had been aware of the situation.
Argyll & Bute Council has now intimated that a full review of the Jura Ferry timetable will take place over coming weeks. Jura Community Council has countered by stating that such a review hardly mitigates the current situation, pointing out that in the minutes published in the August edition of Jura Jottings, regarding a meeting with the ferry team in June, made no mention of this timetable change.
JCC contends that their community cannot be expected to survive without the late sailings and will continue to push for a speedy resolution.
A meeting was due to have taken place on Tursday 6 August with Council Leader, Jim Lynch, Chief Executive, Pippa Milne, Head of Roads and Infrastructure, Andy Summers and Brendan O’Hara, Argyll & Bute MP.
With grateful thanks to Jura Jottings.
Photos: Rae McKenzie Photography
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Book review
The Residency - CD Major. Canelo paperback. 327pp £9.99
In an interview with 'Booktime' magazine, author Cesca Major, revealed that part of her inspiration for the setting of 'The Residency' was a small island off the coast of Gigha, on which there was a single house. "Even though you would be able to see the mainland from that island, you are absolutely at the island's mercy."
And just to bring the narrative closer to home, the principal character's daughter is called Isla.
Ginny is a single mother in London, whose abusive husband has been jailed, but is due for release anytime soon, a happenstance that she is dreading.
As a former student at the Royal Academy of Art, by good fortune, she has replied to a newspaper advert for an all expenses paid artist residency on Stark island off the west coast of Scotland.
Having been accepted, much to her astonishment, she and her daughter travel north to meet her mysterious benefactor, Philip Eastwick-Lang, and resume an interrupted career as an artist.
Despite slight misgivings during the short boat trip from Morrie to Stark island, all seems too good to be true. A large house in which to work, a school (and school friends) for her daughter, and a wealth of others in the small community with whom she hopes to strike up lasting friendships.
Philip Eastwick-Lang is an artist in his own right, apparently specialising in miniature, yet highly realistic paintings, many of which feature on the walls of Ginny's large old house, but obscured by velvet curtains.
Ginny is under strict instructions not to look behind any of the closed curtains.
Only the day after arriving on the island, and yet to fully settle in, Ginny is unexpectedly approached by Walt, the boatman, who implores her to pack her things, and he will take her and her daughter off the island.
Why?
And perhaps more to the point, she receives no money for the residency until the end of the agreed period. Leaving will simply return her to the destitution she thought she'd left behind, and quite probably back into the clutches of her abusive husband.
The residency was to give her the opportunity to create a body of work, sufficient to mount an exhibition, and enough money to create a new life for her and Isla.
Why would she leave? Granted, there seemed to be one or two oddities about her island situation, but Philip Eastwick-Lang seemed the perfect gentleman, and weren't all artists just a bit strange?
However, it is a truism that the biggest gifts often come with the highest price.
The author's ability to maintain both mystery and suspense across more than 300 pages is impressive, while the brevity of the chapters make it all too easy to lose track of time and read far longer than you'd intended.
bp
The Residency is available to order from The Celtic House, Bowmore.
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In this week's issue:
Islay Half Marathon, Summer Ferry Tales, Jura Ferry sailings cut, A bright future for Islay House, Maggie's medal, RNLI world cup funds, Ride of the Falling Rain, Islay Alpacas, Hospital Working Bee, Port Ellen Bowls, Botanist Foundation bursaries, Islay and Jura invasive plant project update, Book review - The Residency CD Major, The failing of Kilchoman Church, Music Review: The Inchcolm Antiphoner - Fraser Fifield, Music Review: Prime Play Standards
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Music review
Fraser Fifield. The Inchcolm Antiphoner
There has been many an album released with a bizarre title: 'Tales from Topographic Oceans', for example, or 'Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water'. And now multi-instrumentalist, Fraser Fifield, comes along with 'The Inchcolm Antiphoner'.
As it transpires, the album's title is perfectly formed, but with good reason. The Inchcolm Antiphoner is Scotland’s oldest known musical manuscript. It is thought to have been composed or compiled around 1340 for performance as part of a religious service, most probably held in Inchcolm Abbey on Inchcolm Island in the Firth of Forth, between Edinburgh and Fife.
Performances have formerly been the preserve of vocal groups, but on this occasion, Fifield has arranged the music for a saxophone quartet consisting of Sue McKenzie (alto) Martin Kershaw (tenor) and Allon Beauvoisin (baritone) with Fifield on soprano sax.
Fraser said, "The twenty-three songs and chants in the collection were written to be sung without accompaniment, and I chose the saxophone as it's an instrument that has a very vocal quality.
"I like the idea of the saxophone quartet as a kind of choir and, as the music was composed before harmony was invented, it was interesting to arrange it for these four instruments with their differing ranges."
He was introduced to the manuscript by Dr Neill Martin, the Head of Celtic and Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh, where Fifield is in his final year as Traditional Artist in Residence.
Fifield added, "I was also fascinated by Inchcolm itself. It's a very atmospheric place, although the lifestyle of the monks in its abbey was very spartan, and as an improvising musician I found the discipline in keeping to the written notes a very different experience. I learned a few things and enjoyed the challenge.
"I spent a lot of time ensuring that the parts worked for everyone and there was consistency in the quality of the music."
I'd be inclined to agree with Fraser's assessment that the music has transferred well to the saxophone. Expertly arranged, there is no hint of incongruity from the change in instrumental performance across the album's 23 tracks (some of which are as brief as 15 and 19 seconds in duration).
This time, the titles do provide a clue as to the purpose of each track: 'Vespers Responsory For the Sunday Within the Octave', and 'Benedictus' to name but two.
The music is greatly uplifting, its simplicity of origin, albeit with an underlying complexity, is brought to life by the quartet of saxophones providing their own slant on what was originally intended as intensely spiritual music.
So close is the harmonising performed by the quartet, that the sounds could have been produced by a harmonium or even a pipe organ. It's not unusual for any given recording to produce a distinct favourite amongst its musical selection, but this is hardly just any album. Aside from repaying extended listening, and at the risk of sounding unbearably twee, there are too many examples of excellence from which to choose. 'Benedictus' is the longest track (5"04'), but even 'Deus In Adiutorum' at little over one minute, proved every bit as delightful.
This could be the most important album you hear this year.
bp
The Inchcolm Antiphoner is available on Bandcamp.
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This is Islay
2026 Podcast of the Year featuring individuals, personalities and features of Islay and Jura. Listen now at https://anchor.fm/thisisislay
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