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Jura

by Gary McKay

ISBN: 9781899863396
Imprint: House of Lochar
Publication Date: Jan 2005
Format: Paperback
Price: £15.00
Stock Status: not in stock

The Isle of Jura is, nowadays, home to only a few hundred people yet every corner of this dramatic landscape is steeped in the stories and legends of those who have lived there in the past. The "Paps" of Jura dominate the seascape for miles around yet the island, with no direct ferry link with the Scottish mainland, is familiar to relatively few. This new book, featuring more than fifty photographs of the island, will introduce you to both the its wide open - and "empty" - spaces and its more intimate corners. Gary McKay has illustrated his remarkably detailed images with the traditional stories linked with each location.

The book is a joint project between the Feolin Study Centre in Jura and House of Lochar, following on from Brian Hindmarch’s rather different photographic treatment of Colonsay a few years ago. (Colonsay: Elements of an Island). The photographs are a selection from Professor McKay’s 2004 landscape exhibition entitled, "Jura 365". For commentary he has researched and compiled, where possible, oral stories about each place and carefully translated these stories from their traditional Gaelic, while trying to retain their original flavour. Coupled with short, incisive and personal introductory paragraphs, the book is not an elegy for a Hebridean island that has lost its original culture, but a proud and defiant shout of cultural self-awareness.

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