• Black sub-group of the Clan Donald DNA Project
  (The group can be found a little below halfway down the page)
• Barra R1b group (orange coloured) in the MacNeil Project
• Scottish DNA Project
  (Group R1b1a2a1a1b5b – this is a very large project with 3000+ results. You need to put 4000 in the “Page size” on the top row and refresh to see all results)
• L165/S68 subclade project

Both the Scottish DNA Project and the L165 (also known as S68) project are keen to recruit new participants especially those who know their ancestors came from the Inner Hebrides. Some of the Buies from Jura are now confirmed as carrying a marker indicative of Norse Viking ancestry. S68 is mentioned in Alastair Moffat and Dr James F Wilson’s new book, The Scots: A Genetic Journey. Anyone interested in finding out about how Y-DNA can help with their family history can contact Alasdair at scottishdna@strath.ac.uk

Last weekend the garden was open for the first time and it will be open again on Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th June from 1-4pm. The house has just over an acre of walled garden cultivated by three generations, an orchard and several atmospheric woodland walks looking out to sea. Cream teas will be served dependent on weather and donations will be asked for on the day.

The Scotsman wrote in the before mentioned article “He is understood not to have visited the island since buying the estate, on which most of Jura’s 210 islanders live and five are employed, since its purchase six months ago. Elaine Campbell, the development officer at the Jura Development Trust, said there was concern that the closure of the garden, which attracts around 2,500 visitors every year, could impact on the island’s tourist economy. “Everybody has that fear, because the garden had a great number of visitors every year. They’re unique. It would be hard to say that it’s not going to impact us in some way. We’re all very uncertain about it at the moment.”

“The MSP for the area, Mike Russell, said tourism was the island’s lifeblood. “Jura needs as much help as possible to get to critical mass, and everything it loses diminishes from that,” he said. A spokesperson for Coffey said the gardens at Ardfin House were being renovated. He added: “However, it is Greg’s full intention that once all the renovation works are completed, which is probably going to be at the end of the year, Greg will look to re-open the gardens next year at some point.”

The last paragraph by the spokesperson for Mr Coffey sounds positive although the words “will look to re-open” don’t sound like a firm promise to me. Perhaps you as readers and visitors of the island would like to express the importance that these gardens to remain open for both the locals and tourists. If you do please feel free to leave a comment below and let’s hope it will help!

I’ve created this video using my Android phone to show you how peaceful it can be. The last part of the video is shot from the track of “Evan’s Walk” that leads to the Paps. The views from there include Lowlandman’s Bay and the Small Isles Bay. Enjoy!

Argyll and Bute Council has agreed to give the Jura Development Trust £24,000 to keep the passenger ferry service between Jura and Tayvallich operational for summer 2011. The money is a one off until the findings of the Scottish Ferries Review are known.

It has been agreed at a meeting today (June 2nd) there will be support for the Jura Development Trust from the Business Gateway team with the development of a business model. The council is fully supportive of the case the trust is putting to the Scottish Government for sustainable government funding of the Jura to Tayvallich fast ferry service through the Scottish Ferries Review.

Spokesperson for Rural and Island Affairs, Housing and Gaelic, Councillor Robin Currie said “I am absolutely delighted that Argyll and Bute Council is financially supporting the Jura passenger Service this year as the continuation of this service is vitally important to the economy of the island. Myself and others have been determined that this service continues this year because if it were not to run, it would be extremely difficult to resurrect the service next year. The Council and Jura Development Trust both agree that the funding for ferry services should be the remit of Scottish Government, so jointly we will be campaigning for the Scottish Government to take over the funding of the service in future years.”

This press release was posted in the Facebook Group “Save the Jura Passenger Ferry“

On a personal note I’ve often wondered why Jura had such a different position in the larger West of Scotland Calmac dominated ferry system. After all, Jura has a larger population than some other islands on the west coast of Scotland who do have their own, or indirect, Calmac Ferry such as Gigha, Rum, Coll and Lismore. One can argue that these islands have no alternative ferry route via another island but Jura wouldn’t need an alternative ferry link via Islay either if it would have a direct link with the mainland. In my humble opinion having a direct link to the mainland is the only way the island would be able to develop economically in the future. And that direct link could be a passenger ferry or a combined car/passenger ferry. We know already that money will be lost anyway, be it through a loss making Calmac Ferry service such as the one on Gigha or through a subsidised council ferry. Most ferry routes in the west of Scotland are already heavily subsidised by the Scottish Government anyway so why pull the the plug on Jura, doesn’t this island need a “lifeline ferryservice”? I think it’s a shame that a government, regional or national, takes away money from Jura for the passenger ferry and gives it back to the Western Isles in the form of Road Equivalent Tariff (RET). This way they benefit local businesses and accommodation providers in the western Isles over the backs of businesses in Argyll and in this case Jura in particular. I know you can’t really compare the two different schemes but in my opinion this is just not right!

So what about the future? I guess when the necessary funds can be found the service will run again but at this moment I understand it’s very uncertain if and when this will happen. All I can recommend now is to visit the Jura Passenger Ferry website for the latest information, to make a donation and to hope for the best!

Never mind the forecast, the weather sucked. Not only did the morning suggest poor photography, but it also wasn’t the most pleasant conditions for a walk. Grey, gloomy and cold with a cloud base of around 400 metres, it certainly wasn’t the best. Still, I had decided on a walk up the Paps and I was keen to get on with it. In addition to the aforementioned biscuits, I was loaded with hot soup, chilli crisps, outdoor kit and of course lenses… Very heavy lenses! I should have rationalised my load here, but it was one of kitchen sink moments where I convinced myself of the apparent need for every focal length between 10mm and 400mm.”

The most exciting element was guessing whether each footfall would sink 6 inches or 3 feet into the peaty gloop. Climbing up on to the saddle between Beinn an Òir and Beinn Shiantaidh saw matters get a little hairy, and I was now within the cloud base and also above the snow line. I guess motivation was fair to moderate (becoming good) at this stage, having negotiated the lowlands I was now hitting the stairs, so to speak.

Anyone familiar with the paps will know that they are a serious undertaking. Whilst not especially high, they are remote from civilisation, steep, covered in loose scree and most importantly Scottish. This final point (combined with winter conditions) means that you shouldn’t really under-estimate them, and I would only advise experience winter hillwalkers attempt them in these conditions.

I knew that there was a diagonal line across the East face, but finding it in a whiteout was pretty tricky. The next hour or so was to be quite a test as I navigated onwards and upwards in the snow. I’m never afraid of admitting defeat in these situations and I made a decision at around 600m to abandon the climb but when the skies cleared briefly and offerred the first visibility in hours I took this a good sign and within a few minutes I was on the summit ridge. I was met with fierce South Westerlies and the wispy cloud was flying past. The scenery below was flicking in and out of visibility by the second. It was pretty exhilerating to be up there, and I moved freely and happily along the ridge to the actual summit.

In the gallery you can see the actual views James enjoyed and I believe the word breathtaking describes pretty much what he saw that day! Make sure to visit the website of James Deane for lots more beautiful photography on www.jamesdeanephotography.com

Visit the Walking the Paps in Jura in Winter Gallery here

The Ileach writes that “In January, Sandy MacTaggart, Argyll & Bute’s Executive Director of Development and Infrastructure Services failed to attend a meeting with representatives of Isle of Jura Development Trust to discuss future financing of the ferry. The meeting had been arranged to suit Mr MacTaggart, cost over four hundred pounds and 60 man-hours for the Jura representatives to attend and the only information imparted was that Argyll & Bute Council had no spare money for the Jura Ferry. “Councillor Robin Currie, (Kintyre & the Islands) has since established that £275,000 exists in a Discretionary Transport Fund, but, as of mid-March, no directive on how that money can be accessed has been issued by Argyll & Bute Council.”

It’s needless to say that this is a huge blow for the already fragile economy of the Isle of Jura. It’s also no surprise to hear that the ferry ran with a loss, it was after all a pilot. There was however a good chance that this ferry service would have become profitable in the long run. And if we talk about losses, most of the current ferry services operated by Calmac are running with a loss as well and need money from the government, why make an exception for Jura? Islands like Lismore and Gigha do have their own (car) ferry service. You can argue that passengers for Jura can use the Islay ferry but you can’t really call that a serious alternative. Travel times to and from Jura are much longer and day trips to Jura from the mainland are not possible. For now we can only hope that a solution will be found, especially in the current economic climate.

If you would like to help support the service you can participate in a survey or make a donation on www.jurapassengerferry.com

The view from the road between Ardlussa and Tarbert

The walled garden next to Jura House is usually open although at this very moment the garden is closed. This has probably got something to do with the fact that the Ardfin Estate has recently been sold. A quote from the ForArgyll website: “The 12,000 acre Ardfin Estate on the Isle of Jura – on the market following the death of its owner Tony Riley-Smith, has been sold to Greg Coffeyy, a 39 year–old Australian hedge fund manager whose city performance has got him nicknamed The Wizard of Oz.” Let’s hope the new owner will keep the garden open and to show you how beautiful the garden is, I have created a new image gallery of the walled garden.

Click here to access the new gallery.