Bowmore and the tyranny of the motor car

One wonders what the eighteenth century architect who designed the village of Bowmore would make of how his delightful planned streets, laid out in an elegant grid, have been taken over by the all-conquering motor vehicle.
Islay's planned villages were built by the Campbells to re-house their tenants - whose scattered hamlets were taking up ground he needed for his programme of agricultural improvements. While the motivation for building them was certainly driven by the potential for economic gain rather than social enlightenment, the new housing was a big step forward in living standards for those who had access to it. The well-built houses were uber-modern for their time and there was piped water in the streets, and a basic sewage system. Each house had a garden, allotment, rights to a peat bank for fuel and access to common grazing.