IslayBlog.com -> 2008 ->
Thursday, 28/Feb/2008
The Third Islay House
Sorry, the Islay panoramas will have to wait until the weekend, had to sort out a few other things this evening (and no, I still haven't heard from my webhoster about the Islay Countdown problems. Not happy. Not happy at all.). Anyway, today I thought I write a bit about Islay House. No, not the real Islay House. Not the ‘fake’ Islay House in California either. I've just found yet another Islay House, this one is down under:
My first sighting was on Flickr, where I found this picture of an Islay House in Woodend, Victoria. Intrigued I went away to try to find out a bit more. After a bit of googling I found this drawing of a doorway of this Islay House. I haven't found anything about the background for the name yet, but at least a good idea about its age from the Wikipedia entry for Woodend:
Like many towns in the area, Woodend has many historical buildings. Entering Woodend from Melbourne, most of the shops and eateries are located either side of the main High Street, with the clocktower in the centre. Built in 1897, The Old Stationmasters House sits on the approach to the High street. At the other end of the shops lies File Mile Creek. A historic bluestone bridge crosses the creek and can be viewed from adjacent parkland. On the left lies Islay House and Beth Shan, both circa 1860. Islay House is a two story brick "Georgian" building that first traded as a licensed premises serving alcohol to the gold diggers.
Considering Islay's developing fame for whisky a quite fitting purpose!
One possible connection to the Isle of Islay could be through the Gilchrist family, a John Gilchrist migrated from Port Ellen to Woodend where he ran a general store. May be he was involved in the naming of the house to remind him of home?
Advertising
Navigation
[Previous entry: "Flight to Islay"] [Home] [Next entry: "Friday Islay Picture (49)"]