In honour of the book, the Isle of Jura released a commemorative whisky edition called 1984. There is also a writer’s retreat programme run in conjunction with the Scottish Book Trust. It lets three lucky blokes spend time on the Isle of Jura while pretending to work on books (hey, I could do that!).

Distillation on the Isle of Jura began in 1810 when the island’s owner set up a rudimentary distillery. The Malt whisky made in the early days had a peatier style mimicking Jura’s neigbhours on Islay: Lagavulin, Ardbeg, Laphroaig and more. The Small Isles Distillery as it was then known passed through a number of hands and even more Scottish feuds to the point where one owner removed all the equipment and stocks of whisky on the island.

In the 1950s, a group of the estate owners of the island, determined to revitalise the island and create employment, got financial backing from Scottish and Newcastle Breweries to rebuild the distillery. The first Single Malt from the new distillery was released in 1974 with a major change in style being that whiskies were now "unpeated" and had more a Highland style than Islay. Ownership passed on to Invergordon distilleries, then to Whyte and Mackay, and finally to India’s UB Group.

Peat is a term used to describe vegetative matter, which is found in abundance in Scotland. As much as a tenth of the country is believed to be covered with the stuff. The early part of the scotch whisky making process involves malting, where the malt (a term given to germinated barley) is dried over a fire. Many distilleries in Scotland dry the malt over a peat fire and hence give their whiskies a distinctive taste.

The name Jura itself is believed to come from an old Norse word for deer, as the

From The Jura Stable Isle of Jura 10: The Classic Island Malt Superstition: What better way to commemorate Scottish superstitions than to raise a toast to them! Isle of Jura 16: The Islander’s favourite 21-year-old: Distilled in 1984 to commemorate the novel

island is home to large herds of red deer. Hunting is also permitted and you can pay one of the estate owners to do so on their land. The fee: 450 pounds to kill a stag and 500 to kill a hind. If you’re not the hunting type, then there are more than 400 lochs on Islay, giving you the option of fishing in one every day! A coach ride around the island will also let you take in Jura’s breasts—the aforementioned three mountains that dominate the skyline. I did just that, and shot a few deer for good measure, albeit with my camera.

Every year there is an Isle of Jura Fell Race, which begins and ends at the town of Craigshouse. Along the way, it traverses seven mountain summits, including the three paps of Jura. The current course record stands at 3 hours and 6 minutes, in an Englishman’s name, much to the dismay of the Scots!

Prior to coming into Islay we had spent some time in Glasgow listening to Whyte and Mackay’s eloquent master distiller holding forth on the wonders of scotch whisky. We asked Richard Paterson if "finishes," the recent practice of maturing aged scotch whisky for a while in a sherry, port or bourbon cask, was meant to make up for deficiencies in the character of the base spirit. Richard was dismissive and said scotch had enough of a character of its own. That, combined with the amazing natural influences of Scotland, was more than enough to make it distinctive.