Today, a Spring Sunday, will see millions in their gardens, but no members of the public visiting Jura House Gardens. They have become both a no-go and a no-news area. Their new owner seldom visits and the local newspapers, despite being asked, have not indicated any interest in the closure of a much-appreciated feature of Jura life. If anyone reading this blog can help with our enquiries, then please make a comment. Just look at what is offered above and below and realise that a valuable asset is, perhaps, being airbrushed from the landscape.
Scottish Islands Explorer - aware of how assets can be lost
3 comments:
I've recently been reading George Orwell's Diaries (edited by Peter Davison), which includes a very interesting section about his time on Jura, building his garden/smallholding at Barnhill. Not sure if there is any link between this garden you mention and Orwell, but if so, it might strengthen the case? Just a thought.
The lack of coverage in local newspapers is indeed a mystery - maybe they are all worried about falling foul of the new landowner?
It seems that initially the new owner intended the closure of the gardens to be temporary. However, he received a number of pleading or angry letters, and a certain amount of adverse publicity, and then one day last summer, on one of his rare visits, his wife was accosted and harangued about the closure. This was, reportedly, the last straw, and at that point he decided that he would keep the gardens to himself.
Meanwhile there is talk of some very ambitious plans. Renovation work is expected at Jura House, a new private road has been driven down from Ardfin Farm to the beach below the house, and there seems to be some land reclamation under way there, presumably for a new landing stage. And it is worth making the point that whatever the new owner does down at the beach will not make it private: it is, and will remain, a public place.
And finally, stretching credulity perhaps, there is talk of an 18-hole golf course - a private one, of course, just for the new owner and his guests and clients.....
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