In the first three years when we visited Islay we stayed in Carraig Fhada B&B, The Byre Cottage in Carnduncan and in 2006 Lyndon Cottage in Ballygrant. Being on the “Port Askaig” side of the island turned out to be a nice experience for us and in 2007 we decided to again find us an accommodation in this area. That’s how we ended up in Persabus.
Persabus Farm
Persabus was, and still is, a working farm on the main road to Port Askaig, at the start of the single track road to Bunnahabhain. The Farmer’s name is Donald Fletcher and he is well known on the island. Donald is a great guy, full of humour and seldom serious. His wife is Rosemary Fletcher and she is running the accommodation side of Persabus as well as the Pottery since 2015.
Persabus Cottage
When we first arrived at Persabus in 2007 we stayed in Persabus Cottage as that was the only holiday let they were offering back then. We had booked for two weeks which was perfect for our Islay discoveries. The cottage itself is spacious with a large farmhouse kitchen where we spent most of our time when we were home. It was cozy with the Rayburn on and the cottage was overall a pleasure to stay in
Persabus Pottery
Opposite the Bunnahabhain road which runs through the farm was the Pottery, owned by Arra Fletcher and his brother Iomhar. I often went over to see Arra, he was a really friendly guy and we had long talks about everything Islay. I learned a lot about Islay from Arra and it was always fun to meet some of his pals if they came over to see him. While working in the pottery he also did the sales when visitors arrived, but back then Islay was a lot quieter so there was usually always time for a blether.
I got to know many people through Arra such as Christine Logan and her mother, Lily Fish, who lived in a lovely cottage at the Sound of Islay and the nice folk at Ballygrant Inn where Arra took us for dinner. Gradually we got to learn the fabric of the island and we felt more and more at home and that motivated me to work even harder on the Islay Info website.
In subsequent years we kept on returning to Persabus and every time it felt like a homecoming. I always brought a case of Grolsch for Arra from the Netherlands and I built Arra a website for the pottery where he could sell his pottery online. As a thank you he once took us on a trip with his motorboat through the entire Sound of Islay, an unforgettable trip.
In these years Donald expanded the accommodation side of things, a new Holiday let was built as well as a Bed and Breakfast. Tourism was booming on Islay and many farmers turned properties into holiday lets to diversify their income.
A Break from Islay
When our daughter was three years old we fulfilled a dream we had. In Spring 2012 we hired a motorhome and visited the entire west coast of Scotland including the Outer Hebrides and the far north. It was an amazing experience in a time where motorhomes were still an exception on the roads although the campsites we visited along our way were mostly booked. It was a super holiday and a Spring in which we skipped Islay.
In the Autumn of 2012, after our Motorhome Trip, we visited Persabus for the last time. By now we thoroughly discovered this part of the island and it was time for us to get to know other parts of the island as well, mainly the Port Ellen area. I know Donald and Rosemary weren’t too pleased that we no longer made use of their accommodation but Islay Info was important to me and I had to spend more time in Port Ellen to get to know it better. We will never forget the hospitality and friendship we received at Persabus and it’s great to see that Rosemary is continuing the Pottery since Arra left for the mainland in 2008.
A New Chapter
As I got to know Gill Johnstone better through the years and built her a website for her accommodations we stayed in Balaclava Cottage on their farm. That was an amazing experience as well, comparable with Persabus but with a focus on Port Ellen. By then we gradually felt that a future on Islay might perhaps be feasible for us.
In the early Spring of 2014 was our last trip to Islay as visitors. By then we had more or less decided to try and move to Islay which materialised later that year. And the rest as they say is history.
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