Iula, Princess of the Giants of Islay

According to Hebridean tradition, Iula (also rendered Yula) was a princess of the giants who set out from her homeland of Denmark in search of adventure, travelling across the sea and carrying a great apron full of magical stones. As she journeyed, stones fell from her apron and became islands — one became Ireland, another Rathlin, and a third the small isle of Texa off Islay's southern coast.

More stones spilled out to form the chain of islands stretching from Ardbeg to Kildalton on Islay's south-east shore. Finally, in a storm, Iula dropped her last and largest stone — which became the island of Islay itself — and was swept away and drowned by the same storm. Tradition holds that she was buried afterwards on a hilltop above Loch Cnoc.

The legend doubles as a folk-etymology for the island's name, Ila in Gaelic, said to derive from Iula herself — though scholars note the name's true root is pre-Gaelic and of unknown origin, recorded as 'Ilea' by Adomnán in the 7th century and as 'Íl' in Old Norse. The tale nonetheless remains one of the more vivid giant-origin stories of the Inner Hebrides, explaining not just one island but an entire scatter of them as the wreckage of a single giant's journey.