Islay House Square was built as stables. Since 2001 the units around the old courtyard have held a whisky vault with more than a hundred bottles, a garden centre called Blue Lupins that does coffee and homemade baking, a batik studio, the Islay Quilters, Susan Eastwood's glassworks and gallery, and a chocolate maker. It is a lot of small enterprise for a place that used to house horses.
Bridgend is where Islay's roads meet. The routes from the Rhinns, Port Askaig, Bowmore and Port Ellen all come together here at the head of Loch Indaal, near where the River Sorn runs into the sea, and the island's buses radiate through it. There is no railway. The nearest way on is the plane to Glenegedale or the CalMac ferry to Port Askaig or Port Ellen.
The village shop is the Spar, which also holds the Post Office, a fuel pump, a petrol station and a car wash. On an island, that combination is less a convenience than a hub.
The Bridgend Hotel does the serious eating. Venison, lamb and beef come off the Estate farm; oysters, crab, lobster and scallops come from local fishermen; there is a seafood ravioli. One reviewer called the meal "excellent, well presented and all three courses were delicious." The dining room is the refined end, Katie's Bar the casual one with a shorter menu, and the public lounge is called The Strath. It succeeds an old inn that Alfred Barnard, visiting in 1886, judged "the best and only one of any importance in Islay, possessing gardens and grounds of most enchanting loveliness."
A mile up the Port Askaig road, on the Sorn, is the Islay Woollen Mill. It was built in 1883 and still has its waterwheel and two 1920s Dobcross looms, and Gordon and Sheila Covell have run it since 1981. Cloth woven here has turned up in Braveheart, Rob Roy, Forrest Gump and War Horse. A flood in December 2023 damaged the looms, and the tweeds have been woven on the mainland since.
The walk to the mill and back is about four miles through Bridgend Woods, following the river. The woods were planted in the early nineteenth century as parkland for Islay House and hold redwood, elm, sycamore and beech among the native trees. Look for dippers, treecreepers and long-tailed tits along the water. In spring there are thousands of snowdrops, daffodils and bluebells, and deer in the shelter. The path can be very wet, with fallen trees to climb where it runs through the Claggan Strip.
Islay House itself was a private home until 2014 and reopened as a hotel in 2016. Down by the shore stands the octagonal East Tower, built in the 1760s, mounting old ship cannons — one of them carries George III's insignia.
Behind the Square is the Islay House Community Garden, four and a half acres of walled kitchen garden being brought back after years of neglect. It sells its fruit and vegetables through an honesty box, and it takes anyone willing to help.
