“Two shipwrecks in 1918 killed hundreds of young Americans within sight of this headland — the monument remembers them all. It's also simply one of Islay's best walks: clifftop views to Ireland, golden eagles overhead, and choughs working the turf underfoot.”
Islay's most iconic walk — a clifftop trail on the Oa peninsula to a WWI memorial, with eagles, choughs, and views to Ireland on a clear day.
- Islay's most iconic walk
- WWI memorial with a moving history
- Golden and white-tailed eagles often seen
- Views to Ireland on a clear day
On 5 February 1918, a German U-boat torpedoed the Tuscania in the North Channel as she carried American troops to the Western Front. British escort ships rescued most of them, but around 200 died, some drowning within reach of Islay's shore. Robert Morrison, a farmer at Upper Killeyan, pulled three survivors from the rocks himself and was later awarded the OBE for it; his sisters took in and cared for 80 to 90 more at their farm. Bodies were carried to Port Ellen's Drill Hall for identification, and the sheer number of dead raised legal questions about how to register deaths at sea, prompting Edinburgh's Registrar General to send guidance on the correct procedure.
The second disaster came eight months later, much further up Islay's coast. On 6 October 1918, the troopship Otranto collided with another vessel, the Kashmir, during a storm off Machir Bay Beach on Islay's west coast, carrying American recruits, many of them from Georgia. HMS Mounsey, a small Royal Navy destroyer, took off 611 men in genuinely heroic conditions, but around 470 died — among them 316 American soldiers, 106 British crew, and 6 French fishermen. Islanders spent weeks recovering bodies from the rocks below Machir Bay; Bowmore's police sergeant, Malcolm MacNeill, personally documented each one and corresponded with grieving families for months afterwards. Most of the Otranto's American dead were laid to rest in the small military cemetery that still looks out over the bay today.
The American Red Cross paid for the monument that commemorates both disasters, a stone tower over 20 metres tall, shaped like a lighthouse, designed by architect Robert Walker and built by George Reid & Son, contractors brought over from Ayrshire. It was finished by 1920, though its formal unveiling was delayed — illness in the US Ambassador's household, and the bronze fittings hadn't even arrived yet. Its two plaques are dedicated to 'the immortal memory' of the American servicemen lost, with the lower one a personal tribute from President Woodrow Wilson. Most of the American dead were later exhumed and taken home for reburial, but the monument on the Oa has stood here for over a century, keeping watch over the same water.
Golden eagles are regularly seen soaring over the cliffs, and The Oa is one of the best places on Islay to spot the rare, red-billed chough foraging on the short turf. Wild goats roam the headland, and otters and grey seals are often seen along the rocky shore below.
This is a genuine clifftop walk, not a fenced viewpoint — drops of up to 100 metres in places. Walkhighlands describes two route options along the way: one that runs close to the cliff edge, and a safer alternative set further back — take the second if you're walking with children or in windy weather. Keep dogs on a lead near the edge and away from grazing sheep and goats.