PORT CHARLOTTE

On the east side of the Rhinns of Islay and facing Loch Indaal is the attractive little village of Port Charlotte, named after the mother of the person who founded the village in 1828, Walter Frederick Campbell. It is the whisky trade for which Islay is so famous that is responsible for the existence of the village, since it was built to house the workers at the Lochindaal Distillery which opened the year after the founding of the village. The distillery is no longer there, but there is another one a couple of miles up the coast at Bruichladdich. Points of interest for visitors to the town include the Islay Natural History Trust, colocated with the Youth Hostel, with information on the island's flora, fauna and geology, and the Museum Of Islay Life, which, as well as books and items illustrating the island's heritage, also displays items from some of the many shipwrecks which have occurred off the island's coast, which include the Tuscania and the Otranto, two American ships which foundered within eight months of each other during the First World War as they were bringing troops over to Europe.

Map of the area.

Port Charlotte from the pier - geograph.org.uk - 758315. Photo by Gordon Hatton, via Wikimedia Commons.