Orwell Fletcher Barnhill Website

ESCAPE TO ORWELL'S BARNHILL

Perhaps best known as the home of George Orwell,
this isolated farmhouse, still under the ownership of the Fletcher family,
is where the celebrated author came
to escape the attentions of the London literati
and find the peace and quiet he needed
to write Nineteen Eighty-Four.

To Orwell Today,

Dear Jackie Jura,

I'm the son of Jamie and Damaris Fletcher who you met during your visit to Barnhill.

My parents have launched a new website for Orwell enthusiasts which covers all aspects of life on the island of Jura – including the wildlife, walking and Orwell connection – also provides details on how to rent the house.

Still owned by the Fletchers, the same family that leased it to Orwell in the late 1940s, the house is available to rent by the week and sleeps up to six people.

While the house and its surroundings are remarkably unchanged since the days the author stayed there, we thought we should bring it into the virtual 21st century by putting it on the web.

My grandparents were Orwell's neighbours on the island. Although the house is quite primitive in some ways, it remains very popular with the whole Fletcher family and we hope that the website might encourage more people -- whether Orwell acolytes, fishing enthusiasts or those merely seeking seclusion -- to come and stay in the splendid isolation of Barnhill.

For more details please see ESCAPE TO JURA

All the best,
Rob Fletcher

Greetings Rob,

Congratulations on the ESCAPE TO JURA website -- the photographs are beautiful!

I love the panoramic Jura Fullscreen zoom 360 interactive page.

On the ferry on the way to Jura I read a 1993 booklet -- JURA AND GEORGE ORWELL -- containing an essay written by your grandmother describing her remembrances of Orwell during the years he lived at Barnhill. I've scanned it below to share with readers not familiar with the story.

I think it complements your website nicely and makes it a three-generational Fletcher family project.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

THE REMINISCENCES OF MRS NELSON
(WIFE OF ROBIN FLETCHER) OF ARDLUSSA

~ click on images to enlarge for reading ~

PS - The ESCAPE TO JURA website godcidently launched on the ORWELL TODAY website on January 21st, 2012 -- the 62nd anniversary of Orwell's death a year after leaving Barnhill for the last time -- the writing and typing of "1984" having taken every last ounce of energy he had left in his body.

62nd anniversary of Orwell's death

(Orwell's hospital; Orwell's grave)

ORWELL THE PASSING TRAVELLER
January 21st, 1950-2012