Port Askaig | |
Scottish Gaelic: Port Asgaig | |
Port Askaig |
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Port Askaig
Port Askaig shown within Argyll and Bute |
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OS grid reference | NR435695 |
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Council area | Argyll and Bute |
Lieutenancy area | Argyll and Bute |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | ISLE OF ISLAY |
Postcode district | PA46 |
Dialling code | 01496 |
EU Parliament | Scotland |
UK Parliament | Argyll and Bute |
Scottish Parliament | Argyll and Bute |
List of places: UK • Scotland • |
Port Askaig (Scottish Gaelic: Port Asgaig) is a port village on the east coast of the island of Islay, in Scotland.
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Port Askaig serves as the main port of Islay, sharing passenger services to the Scottish mainland with Port Ellen. It also has a regular service to Feolin, Jura across the Sound of Islay, and in the summer there is also a weekly service via Colonsay to Oban.
Port Askaig is the base of the Islay RNLI lifeboat which is called out ten to twelve times a year.
Port Askaig is memorialised in the classic 6/8 bagpipe pipe march "Leaving Port Askaig".
Port Askaig has a hotel, a petrol station and shop next to the port but has very few households.
Between 2006 and 2009 Port Askaig was the site of a £13.7 million civil engineering project. The work included a new linkspan and other berthing facilities for mainland ferries, new facilities for the Jura ferry, and new car parks and waiting rooms. The redeveloped port was officially re-opened on 10 September 2009 by the Princess Royal.[1]
Port Askaig is also the name for a recent bottling of Scotch whisky, produced for The Whisky Exchange, a retailer in the UK. Its three bottlings - a Cask Strength, a 17 year old, and 25 year old, are strongly rumoured to be re-brandings of the Islay neighbour to the north, Caol Ila (owned by Diageo).