It took a bit of time to decide what the instructions meant, while solving some random “normal” clues – and coming up with, I think, seven of the themed ones, which simply stayed in pencil while I compiled a list of rather strange “words”.

Then I used OneLook to work out MISLAY from the checked letters and the cash descended at 9.8 m/s^2.

I seriously think it the repeat answer – RETIREE from the day before – was intentional. The Friday clue had me staring at a map of the Hebrides for a few hours (ok, minutes) looking for islands I could use, and noticing some rather odd ones. So then I started typing in my strange strings of letters into the Wikipedia search box, with increasing glee. ALARUM fell easily then, since I had noticed and tried to use Rum the day before. While drinking Scotch.

In terms of aids, I take a “tiered” approach – I certainly would love to someday solve a puzzle entirely out of my own knowledge, but I don’t mind various levels of “checking”. For instance, if I work out a likely answer that is a word I don’t know, at some point I will probably look it up to see if it is correct, but usually after leaving it in pencil for a while. It is a testament to the skill Bonxie demonstrated here that the only researches I really had to do was check that these were indeed (Scottish) islands, after coming up with valid solutions.

One themed puzzle I remember from some time ago revolved around the Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson. After working on it for some time, I was not embarrassed at all to read the entire Wikipedia article or three, fixing typos and grammar along the way, and occasionally noticing words that fit clues I had in the back of my mind.

I enjoyed this puzzle immensely, which is why I kept it out so I could come back here in a week and read the blog and leave my comments of praise.

So, thanks for the blog, PeeDee and the rest of you lot, and triple thanks to Bonxie for a delightful few hours!

I did have to resort to the Googled “list” for some of the islands but I expect to do this sometimes for the Prize puzzles.

Once I’d cracked the instructions and theme it wasn’t too difficult. (Allowing for the fact that this was a Prize which should in my opinion be a step (or two) up from the weekdays.

Regarding Dunscotus and Eileen @25 & 27. Bizarrely my PC was playing “Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit” when I read your comments. Some coincidence when you consider I was playing from a random playlist of 2925 tracks!

Think that this was one of the best Guardian puzzles for a long time.

For me the theme didn’t come into play until I was left with five clues that I just couldn’t justify any answer for – in fact I’d forgotten about the instruction and was cursing the ‘error bug’ again. Four others that still had a flag for me to parse at the finish and three more that I had somehow satisfied myself with the answer.

The penny finally dropped when I realized BUTANE should really be BUTENE that allowed RETIREE (and jogged memories of TIREE) – then saw BUTE, BARRA, ARRAN and ISLAY to complete the grid. Still had work to complete the parsing of the other 7 islands and a sense of real satisfaction to see it completed.

Thank you Bonxie for the challenge that lasted over an elapsed 2-3 days!

So, for a clue in this puzzle, absolutely anything goes – endless possibilities!! I could spend all night coming up with suggestions but I’ll leave it to the experts. It would be great if Bonxie dropped in and offered a possibility.

A good while back someone on the Guardian Comments clued Colonsay -

:eg

(I think it followed one of Paul’s dingbat puzzles.)

It’s a real tour de force in that it is hard to think of any other Scottish islands that could be used in this way – IONA is the only obvious example, and I spent a long time trying to slot Catriona in. It will be a real master who can find a way of incorporating Colonsay or North Ronaldsay.

I was very slow to get the idea, as I had carelessly read the instructions to mean that it was the solution that wasn’t clued.

The theme was right up my street, as I have visited all but 3 of the islands. I hope I will be equally enthusiastic when we get Jim’s (@9) suggestion of a puzzle based on Slovakian rivers.

In my philosophy, no man is an island.
Nevertheless, I was honoured to find my pseudonym the key to this puzzle