Portnahaven (, meaning river port) is a village on

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 the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides ( ; ) is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides compri ...

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 village is within the parish of Kilchoman. It was founded by Walter Campbell of Shawfield after he purchased the Sunderland estate in 1788 and it was further developed in the 1820s by his son Captain Walter Campbell of Foreland and Sunderland. Portnahaven Parish Church was erected in 1828 as a Telford Parliamentary church to the designs of

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

and the architect William Thomson. It is located at the southern tip of the Rinns at the southern end of the A847 road. The A847 follows the coast from Portnahaven to Port Charlotte and

Bridgend Bridgend (; or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in the Bridgend County Borough of Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the Old Bridge, Bridgend, medieval bridge over the River Og ...

. Its harbour is sheltered by the island of

Orsay Orsay () is a Communes of France, commune in the Essonne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France in northern France. It is located in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. A fortifie ...

and its smaller neighbour Eilean Mhic Coinnich. The Rinns of Islay lighthouse, built by Stevenson is located on Orsay. Portnahaven is served by a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, one shop which is also a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, and a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, An Tigh Seinnse. The harbour around which the village is built provides the opportunity to observe grey seals at close quarters. The village of Port Wemyss is located just to the south of Portnahaven. In 1991 it had a population of 150. North of Portnahaven, at Claddach, is the world's first operational

wave power Wave power is the capture of energy of wind waves to do useful mechanical work, work – for example, electricity generation, desalination, or pumping water. A machine that exploits wave power (physics), power is a wave energy converter (WEC). W ...

machine. The " Islay LIMPET", constructed by Wavegen, became operational in 2000. Nearby settlements include the village of Nerabus.

References

External links

Photographs and brief description
Villages in Islay {{Argyll-geo-stub