Persabus Farm

If you are staying at Persabus, you will enjoy seeing our menagerie of ‘colourful characters’. This includes our herd of Highland cows. Our sheep, include native Hebridean sheep, as well as a mix of Blackface and crossed sheep. We have horses, our friendly farm cats, who may well call by for a visit, and our dogs.

We are really excited that the farm is also part of the island’s ‘whisky journey’. Growing barley for Bruichladdich Distillery, as well as silage crops to provide winter feed for the animals.

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Farm History

Persabus has been farmed by the Fletcher family for over 100 years. The family have a long history with the island, having resided here for some five hundred years. Persabus Cottage was the original farmhouse and was built in the late 1700s, originally for the miners. The high drystone wall of the Cottage garden was built by Thomas Spalding, who built the Round Church in Bowmore, around the same time.

Rosemary and Donald have been building and renovating the old ruins on the farm over the last 25 years with Donald undertaking most of the building work himself. The original farmhouse was renovated into Persabus Cottage in the 1990s.

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Built in the late 1700s

Persabus Millhouse is part of the original farm steadings and was built in the late 1700s. In the loft there was a mill and a bruiser, used to thrash the corn to remove the heads. These were then rolled in the bruiser to flatten the heads into oats. The Millhouse was renovated into a self-catering cottage by Rosemary and Donald in the 1990s. Persabus Farmhouse, the main farmhouse, was renovated by Rosemary and Donald in the 1990s. In 2008 Donald began work on renovating the old stable block to form a bed and breakfast wing on the farmhouse.

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The Pottery

The old stone building which is now the pottery studio, would have originally housed several families. A large stone wall used to seperate it in two.

During the history of the farm one side was used as a stable for the Clydesdale horse. The horse pulled the plough in the fields when Donald’s grandfather ran the farm. The other side of the stone building housed a boiler which was used for boiling the animal feed in the winter months.

Donald’s sister, Linda Fletcher, started Persabus Pottery on the farm in the 1970s. His late mother took over the pottery when Linda left for the mainland. Back then, the pottery produced slab clay work. Iomhair and Arra, Donald’s brothers, ran the pottery from the 1990s onwards. They used slip clay, and built and hand carved their own moulds. Arra and Iomhair designed and made a lot of the pottery water jugs for the distilleries and sold pottery in their workshop. Small batches of the old pottery are still produced at Persabus and are available to buy online here.

Rosemary has been running the pottery for over ten years. She hand paints pieces with her own Islay inspired designs.

Location

Persabus boasts a secluded position a mile from the ferry terminal at Port Askaig, surrounded by farmland, with views of the Paps of Jura and the Sound of Islay. It is an ideal location for enjoying bird watching and wildlife.

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Accommodation

Explore our delightful Islay accommodation where we have a fabulous choice of country accommodation on this beautiful island.

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Things to Do

There is so much to see and do on the beautiful island of Islay and we have a section to help you decide what to do when you visit here.

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Testimonials

Perfect stay at Persabus. We went to Islay for the annual whisky festival and stayed again with Donald and Rosemary at their farm cottage. We had a lovely time enjoying their hospitality and daily introductions to the Islay whisky delights! The cottage has everything needed to enjoy a stay on b & b basis, comfortable bed, great shower and exclusive sitting room where we could relax with a “wee dram” or two!

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