Port Askaig – Ferries on the Sound and a Pot to Paint
A few hours.
The route
Port Askaig is Islay's ferry port, a few white buildings at the foot of a steep hillside on the Sound of Islay, with Jura across the water.
Lunch is at the hotel by the pier. Then the pottery at Persabus Farm, up the hill, hands you a plain mug or bowl to paint, and glazes and fires it for you to collect.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book Persabus Pottery, Ceramics and Art
From November to March, book your painting session at Persabus ahead on 01496 840243 or through its contact page, for after lunch.
The day
Port Askaig
A late morning by the harbour at Port Askaig, watching the ferries on the Sound, lunch at the hotel by the pier, then a pot of your own to paint in the farm studio up the hill.
About three hours
Port Askaig
An attraction
Port Askaig is a handful of white buildings at the foot of a steep hillside on the Sound of Islay, with Jura across the water. There is a car park on the road down into the village. The place runs on its two ferries: Islay's CalMac ferry from Kennacraig comes in here, and the small Jura ferry crosses the half-mile Sound to Feolin through the day. Check CalMac's timetable if you'd like to watch the big ferry swing in past the fishing boats. The bright orange boat in the harbour is Islay's lifeboat, from the station here that opened in 1934. The water in the Sound runs fast with the tide, so keep children back from the pier edge. Give the harbour half an hour or so, then have lunch at the Port Askaig Hotel by the pier. Its restaurant is open all year, and lunch is served in both bars every day from noon, with last orders at 2.30pm: local Islay meat and seafood from the daily catch.
4 min by car
Persabus Pottery, Ceramics and Art
A shop
It's 4 minutes' drive up the hill to Persabus, a working farm above Port Askaig with views over the Sound to the Paps of Jura, where the Fletcher family run a pottery and art studio. Choose a plain mug, plate or bowl from the shelves and paint it however you like, and the studio glazes and fires it in its own kilns. It's ready to collect a day or so later, or they'll post it to a UK address for a small fee. Pieces start from £14, a mug is £15, and there's a small studio fee for each painter. It's for all ages. The studio opens Tuesday to Friday from noon to 4pm and Saturday from noon to 3pm. From November to March painting is by booking only, on 01496 840243. Allow an hour or so, since on rainy days studio time may be kept to an hour.
If it rains
The lunch and the painting are both under a roof. On a wild day, keep the harbour to a look from the car park and go in to lunch early.
On the way
- Finlaggan
Finlaggan is where the Lords of the Isles held court in the 1300s and 1400s, on two small islands in a loch among the fields. A path over a field and a timber walkway lead out to Eilean Mor, about ten minutes each way from the car park at the end of the farm road. It's open ground with no staff: keep dogs on a lead, and expect farm animals on the road in.
Photograph by Persabus Pottery, Ceramics and Art via Google
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