Ballivicar, Isle of Islay, PA42 7AW

The site is an irregular shaped area of predominantly level peat land located 2 km North West of Port Ellen on the Isle of Islay. The subjects lie at the southern end of large scale peatland covering central Islay between the villages of Port Ellen and Bowmore. The site is bordered to east and west by public roads, from which access can be taken. To the south is a small farm, with green pasture, rough grazings and some ploughable land. Northwards the land is mostly peatland, continuing some 11 kilometres to the outskirts of the village of Bowmore. Ballivicar Moss is vacant land of low fertility and not suited to farming. It was last in productive use when peats were cut for distillery and domestic use many decades ago. There is no existing vehicular access into the site and it is therefore proposed to construct short tracks leading to harvest sites on the eastern side from the A846 and on the western side from the minor Kintra road. Hard standing areas will be prepared for temporary storage of drying peat. It may not be necessary to construct the western track during this 15 year planning permission, as there is sufficient peat in the eastern harvest area alone to supply the permitted 2,000 tonnes p.a. - subject for discussion during negotiations. The construction of the road junction, track(s) and stacking areas will be the responsibility of the tenant.

ISLAY WHISKY Islay is globally recognised as one of the five Scottish whisky regions and is renowned for its distinctive peated style. There are currently ten operational distilleries on the island with two more under construction and planning permission granted for a further two - highlighting continued growth in production capacity. Peat is also supplied to mainland maltsters producing for the Islay market. Scotch Whisky rules only allow three ingredients - water, barley and yeast. Peat smoke used in malting provides characteristic flavour; choice of wood (eg sherry or bourbon casks) is the other variable, along with shape of still etc.