Thursday 15 August 2013

Still a Public House?


This was one of the more remote public houses in Britain. It's the Byron Darnton Tavern, opened on Sanda, off the Kintyre peninsula, in 2003. However, since the island has become increasingly private this year, the status of these licensed premises is uncertain. Byron Darton (1897 - 1942) was an acclaimed American journalist and war correspondent of the New York Times, who was killed near New Guinea by 'friendly-fire' when the boat on which he was sailing was mistaken for a Japanese vessel. A 10,500 ton Liberty ship was named after him in 1943 and spent the remaining war-years on the North Atlantic run to Murmansk. In 1946 it ran aground in an easterly gale off Sanda. Byron's sons became influential figures - Robert as a cultural historian; John as a winner of the Pulitizer Prize for Journalism. He retired from the New York Times in 2005 and that year visited Sanda.

Scottish Islands Explorer - very much a magazine for public consumption

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