North of Craighouse are a number of other small settlements on or near the east coast: Keils, Knockrome, Ardfernal, Lagg, Tarbert, Ardlussa (home of Lussa Gin) and Inverlussa.

[10] Between Jura's northern tip and the island of Scarba lies the Gulf of Corryvreckan, where a whirlpool makes passage dangerous at certain states of the tide.

[16] The island is dominated by three steep-sided conical quartzite mountains on its western side, the Paps of Jura, which rise to 785 metres (2,575 ft).

There are three major peaks: The Paps dominate the landscape in the region and are visible from the Mull of Kintyre and, on a clear day, from the Isle of Skye and Northern Ireland.

[22] Jura is closer to Ireland's northern province of Ulster than it is to Glasgow, so it should not be unexpected that Irish people crossed the Straits of Moyle and established the Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riata.

It is believed that Jura may have been Hinba, the island to which the 6th-century missionary, Columba, retreated from the monastic community he founded on Iona, when he wished for a more contemplative life.

[23] Dál Riata was ultimately destroyed when Vikings invaded, and established their own domain, spreading more extensively over the islands north and west of the mainland, including Jura.

Following Godred's death, the local population resisted Norway's choice of replacement, causing Magnus, the Norwegian king, to launch a military campaign to assert his authority.

Half a century later, however, Somerled, the husband of Godred Crovan's granddaughter, led a successful revolt against Norway, transforming Suðreyjar into an independent kingdom.

In 1266, his more peaceable successor ceded his nominal authority over Suðreyjar to the Scottish king (Alexander III) by the Treaty of Perth, in return for a very large sum of money.

[citation needed] Throughout all this time, the descendants of the Cenél nÓengusa had retained their identity; they were now the MacInnes (not to be confused with similarly named groups elsewhere in Scotland).

Following John MacDonald's death, his grandson and heir, Black Donald, was being kept a prisoner at Innes Chonnel Castle (a stronghold of the Campbells).

With inherited Campbell control of the sheriffdom, comital authority was superfluous, and the provincial identity (medieval Latin:provincia) of Islay-Jura faded away.

In 1767, fifty people left for Canada, and from then the population fluctuated, rising to a peak of 1,312 in 1831, before gradually shrinking to its 20th century level of just a few hundred.

In 1963, two estate owners, Robin Fletcher of Ardlussa and Tony Riley-Smith of Ardfin, took over the old property and built a modern distillery; they expanded it in 1978.

In an economic survey published in 2005 by the now-defunct Feolin Study Centre on Jura,[57] the gross turnover of the island was estimated to be just over £3.2 million.

Conde Nast Traveller suggested that visitors would appreciate the many red deer, "and the distinctive Paps of Jura rise above miles of blanket bog and freshwater lochans" as well as the "remote bays and bothies" or the boat trips to the Corryvreckan whirlpool.

[60] The Rough Guides book adds that there is a hotel and some bed and breakfast accommodation on the island, which is "an ideal place to go for peace and quiet and some great walking".

In 2013 Jura Development Trust secured financial support from the Big Lottery Fund and other sources to purchase the island's only shop, which re-opened as a community-owned business in 2014.

Throughout the year the MV Eilean Dhiura runs a regular service between Feolin on Jura and Port Askaig on Islay, with frequent sailings from 7.30am to 6.30pm Mon-Sat and a reduced Sunday schedule.

[64] Jura has only one road of any significance, the single-track A846, which follows the southern and eastern coastline of the island from Feolin Ferry to Craighouse, a distance of around 8 miles (13 km).

[68] Like many other parts of the Hebrides and western Scotland, the shores of Jura are frequented by grey seals, and the elusive otter is also relatively common here, as is the adder, the UK's only venomous snake.

[66] The seas around Jura form part of the Inner Hebrides and the Minches Special Area of Conservation due to their importance for Harbour porpoises.

[69] In 1549, Donald Monro, Dean of the Isles, wrote that the island was "ane ather fyne forrest for deire, inhabit and manurit at the coist syde", with "fresche water Loches, with meikell of profit" and an abundance of salmon.

[70][Note 1] However, when the soldier and military historian Sir James Turner visited Jura in 1632, he was less impressed, reporting that '[it is] a horride ile and a habitation fit for deere and wild beastes'.

Martin noted some extraordinary examples of longevity, including one Gillouir MacCrain, who was alleged to have kept one hundred and eighty Christmases in his own house.

Convulsions, vapours, palsies, surfeits, lethargies, megrims, consumptions, rickets, pains of the stomach or coughs, are not frequent here, and none of them are at any time observed to become mad.

Jura is featured in the plot of the 2003 novel A Question of Blood by Ian Rankin, and the 2007 novel The Careful Use of Compliments by the Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith, and is a setting for some of the narrative and action in Anne Michaels' 2008 novel The Winter Vault.

The album, which featured a photo of the Skervuile Lighthouse in the Sound of Jura as its cover, reached Number 1 in the European World Music Charts in January 2011.

Jura is also known for an event of 23 August 1994, when Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, formerly known as the music group The KLF, filmed themselves burning £1 million in banknotes in the Ardfin boathouse on the south coast of the island.