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We now leave the bleakness behind as the track approaches the verdant wooded oasis around Kinuachdrachd harbour. These are some of the items on his to-do list before leaving for the winter in 1947:Īll we can hear is the trickle of water in the burn alongside the track and birdsong from the trees beyond. The typical daily activities at Barnhill would be very familiar to any smallholder today. The antiquated typewriter is still here and working. It was here that he completed the manuscript for 1984, sitting in bed, powered by cups of tea, hand-rolled cigarettes and perhaps the occasional mug of gin. We stand for a moment imagining the famous author marinating in the bath like a steaming cup of strong tea.ĭown the corridor is Orwell’s bedroom. The bath is a solid cast iron affair with big claw feet and deep stains from the peaty water delivered by the house’s private supply.
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It has barely changed since Orwell lived here. If you are lucky enough to rent it or come on an organised visit, you will get to see inside, with its Aga, now-faded wall maps of post-war Europe, well-thumbed copies of 1984 and comfortably sagging armchairs. Behind it is the Sound of Jura stretching away towards the hazy coastline of Argyll. In any case it’s not an unpleasant walk if it isn’t actually pouring.’įinally coming over a rise, we spot the plain, sizeable whitewashed old farmhouse in a hollow of land with a small field to the front of it. But I hope that our van, which is at present hors de combat, will be running again by then. In that case I’ll arrange about the transport of your luggage. As George Orwell forewarned one of his guests: ‘I hope and trust it won’t turn out so, but it might be that you have to walk the last 7 miles. Our walk starts from the old quarry at Road End, which is about one km beyond Lealt. The sheer loneliness and isolation of the place is perhaps the clue to the coldness of the soul that he was able to create in the novel. But the place enabled Orwell ‘to escape the daily grind of journalism and to find a clean environment which doctors thought would help him recover from a dangerous bout of tuberculosis’. People are often surprised that such a beautiful spot should be the fertile soil for the dystopia of 1984.
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The book was going to be called ‘The Last Man in Europe’, which must be how he felt at times living up here! It is where 1984 was written (the last two digits of 1948 reversed), so it has an important place in the annals of Orwellia. Orwell developed a smallholding here, with a fruit and vegetable plot, a chicken coop and at points a few farm animals. The farmhouse, Barnhill, is as remote as remote can be, seven miles along an unmade-up track, and in exposed country on the northeast of the island. He fell in love with the place and often had visitors with whom he could share walking, fishing and picnic expeditions across the island. George Orwell lived in a remote farmhouse on the Island of Jura for the last three years of his life from 1946-49. Sturdy bicycles are also an option for proceeding north from Road End Starting point: Road End (Jura bus from Craighouse) or water taxi to Kinuachdrachd.Terrain: boggy in places, potentially unforgiving weather.‘An extremely un-get-atable place’ ‘The walks are wonderful’