Introduction
The Islands of Scotland have been places that I have rarely visited. Whilst I was in the thick of my munro bagging campaign I turned a blind eye to places like Jura. Since visiting the Island on Bank Holiday August I think I can say that I have loved not only the exploration of the Island but also the experience of travelling to and from the Island. Now at the time I lived in Falkirk - halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh. It took me six hours to land on the shores of Jura, six hours! Now six hours can see me south of London or on the north coast of Scotland using public transport but this is an Island that was closer to Falkirk than Inverness (only 3 hours away!).

The southern Jura Hills seen across the sound of Islay

The Paps of Jura seen from the southern tops

I first got an appreciation of the desolation by seeing the size of the ferry that took me across from Islay to Jura - just about big enough for one whiskey lorry! when the lorry gets on, the whole ferry bounces quite disturbingly! It struggles to get across sound of Islay when a strong current is pulling. Pork Askaig is a hive of activity but has a smaller land area than the mainland ferry that docks there (not the biggest ferry either)! I never walked across to Craighouse nor experience the northern desolation of the Island, my aim was simply to get a taste of the Paps.

The Paps of Jura
These mountains are essentially three big conical masses of scree, beyond the paps lie some fine smaller summits to the south and north. I tackled the southern most peak of Dubh Bheinn which gives a very fine and imposing view northwards to the paps seen beyond one other small peak. This watershed is guarded by vast bog land to the west from where I made my ascent. The ridge walk to Glas Bheinn is fine - lots of Quarzite around giving some rough progress but generally preferable to the bog trots lower down.

Beinn Shiantaidh seen from the south

Beinn Shiantaidh seen from the west on the slopes of Beinn an Oir

Further north we have the three paps themselves. They all look quite forbidding with steep scree and occasional crags seeming to get in the way. Beinn an Oir is the highest summit at 785m being the only summit reaching Corbett status. The way up to Beinn an Oir is most easily reached via its eastern slopes where a broad ramp traverse upwards and diagonally to the right to reach a height where the scree is less forbidding.

Corra Bhein, north east of Beinn Shiantaidh

The highest hill of them all Beinn an Oir (785m)

Beinn Shiantaidh to the east is also easily reaching from the same bealach, it looks like the slope is very forbidding when seen from the Corbett with broken crags everywhere but there's an obvious gap seen from the bealach that's of trivial difficulty and isn't all that lose. I never climbed the southernmost pap as the summits were generally wreathed in mist during my trip.

Other Walks
A walk on the west coast has been described as being very rough but very remote - sometimes you 8km of very rough going between you and the east coast road. In summary I can say that I'll definately revisit the Island, maybe even buy some whiskey!