Port Ellen () is a small
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
on the island of
Islay
Islay ( ; , ) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll and Bute just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The island's cap ...
, in
Argyll
Argyll (; archaically Argyle; , ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county of western Scotland. The county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975 and most of the area ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. The town is named after the wife of its founder,
Walter Frederick Campbell. Its previous name, ''Leòdamas'', is derived from
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
meaning "Leòd's Harbour".
Port Ellen is built around Leodamais Bay, Islay's main deep water harbour. It is the largest town on Islay, only slightly larger than
Bowmore and provides the main
ferry
A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...
connection between Islay and the mainland, at
Kennacraig. The
Port Ellen Distillery was first established in the 1820s and ceased production of
Scotch whisky in 1983, until reopening in 2024. The large
malt
Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting".
Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...
ing continues to produce for the majority of the
distilleries on Islay.
History
The area around Port Ellen has a variety of archaeological sites covering the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age periods. There are standing stones at Kilbride, a fort at Borraichill Mor, several
chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a sizeable (usually stone) chamber around and over which a cairn of stones was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves. They are fo ...
s, and a chapel at Cill Tobar Lasrach.
Nearby lie the ruined remains of the 14th-century
Dunyvaig Castle, once a fortress of the
MacDonald Lords of the Isles.
The current town was planned by
Walter Frederick Campbell and founded in 1821 originally intended to support the herring industry. It was originally called Port Ellinor in honour of his wife, Lady Eleanor Charteris (d. 1832), daughter of
Francis Douglas, 8th Earl of Wemyss.
Ferry service
Notable people
George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen
George may refer to:
Names
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
People
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE
* George, stage name of Gior ...
, Labour politician and former Secretary General of
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
was born in Port Ellen
on 12 April 1946.
See also
*
St John's Church, Port Ellen
References
External links
Canmore - Islay, Port Ellen, General site record
Villages in Islay
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