EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

At the northern end of the seven-mile-long Laggan Bay, across the monotonous peat bog of Duich Moss, lies BOWMORE , Islay's administrative capital, with a population of around 800. It's a striking place, laid out in a grid-plan rather like Inveraray, with the whitewashed terraces of Main Street climbing up the hill in a straight line from the pier on Loch Indaal to the town's crowning landmark, the Round Church , whose central tower looks uncannily like a lighthouse. Built in the round, so that the devil would have no corners in which to hide, it has a plain, wood-panelled interior, with a lovely tiered balcony and a big central mushroom pillar. A little to the west of Main Street is Bowmore distillery , the first of the legal Islay distilleries, founded in 1779, and still occupying its original whitewashed buildings by the loch.

Islay's only official tourist office is in Bowmore (July & Aug Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 2-5pm; May & June Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm, Sun 2-5pm; April, Sept & Oct Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Nov-March Mon-Fri noon-4pm; tel 01496/810254); it can help you find accommodation anywhere on Islay or Jura. Like Port Ellen, Bowmore itself is, in fact, not necessarily the best place to stay on the island. If you must, however, the Harbour Inn (tel 01496/810330, harbour@harbour-inn.co.uk ; £60-70) on Main Street, Bowmore's cosiest and most central pub, or in one of the town's better B&Bs, such as Lambeth House (tel 01496/810597; under £40), centrally located on Jamieson Street.

If you're visiting Islay between mid-September and the third week of April, it's impossible to miss the island's staggeringly large wintering population of barnacle and white-fronted geese . During this period, the geese dominate the landscape, feeding incessantly off the rich pasture, strolling by the shores, and flying in formation across the winter skies. You can see the geese just about anywhere on the island - there are an estimated 15,000 white-fronted and 40,000 barnacles here (and rising) - though in the evening, they tend to congregate in the tidal mud flats and fields around Loch Gruinart , which is now an RSPB nature reserve .