The wild Isle of Jura sits just off the Scottish coast. The landscape is barely tamed, with the three 'paps' rising above the island. To get to Barnhill, you drive north along the only paved road which wends its way along the east coast of the island - driving as far as possible. If you park your car where the road ends, a well laid out trail in front of you heads further on. Several miles down the track the cottage of Barnhill stands before you, a single white mark in a sea of gorse and heather. This was the place where George Orwell wrote 1984. Distant. Remote. There is simply nothing else around it. It is easy to image Eric Arthur Blair gazing over to the mainland and imagining the society that could evolve there, where, unlike Barnhill, Big Brother would always be watching you.

We visited the only pub on the island - the Jura Hotel in Craighouse - on the way home to sample the local Jura whisky, which helped shake us back into normality again!

Isle of Jura. Find the only road and drive north.
Google map: bit.ly/ek5WCB

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Jura is in the Inner Hebrides. It has 200 people, 5,000 red deer, mountains, beaches, and exotic gardens at Jura House. It has otters and eagles. It is remote and romantic, but it also has a pub, a distillery and an informal but remarkably good bistro/restaurant, The Antlers. And like all the best islands, it's a bit hard to get to (sometime resident George Orwell called it 'ungetattable'). So not too many others will intrude upon your solitude.

www.jurainfo.com/
google map: tinyurl.com/34az3hr

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Last year me, mum, dad and my brother Aidan went on holiday to Jura. We stayed in a cottage beside the sea. There is a beach and a little park just along the road. Sometimes it rained but mostly it was a sunny day. One day we went down to the beach and found a crab crawling around the rock pool. When we went back to the beach one day we saw a wild otter.

Jura
Heatheryknowe
Craighouse
Isle of Jura

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A wild island, boss beaches, cool little shop, good kids food in the Jura Hotel. I get the freedom I don't have at home - I can explore all day on my bike and come home when I am hungry! Good sandcastle sand and empty beaches. Great pier for crab fishing - lots of fresh air! Fantastic for cycling - single track roads and hardly any cars.

From Ross Webster (age 10).

Ferry to Islay then small ferry to Jura
Main village = Craighouse

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