Exactly 3 months after we had intended to travel here, we at last landed on the Isle of Islay.
We kicked off the journey with a visit to Inveraray Castle on Friday morning - a seriously gorgeous castle that belongs to the Campbell family and is still their residence today.
Then to the ferry at Kennacraig, an hour and a bit away, along windy roads that led us to the two hour ferry ride which ended at Port Askaig (pronounced Port Askay). 30 minutes later, we arrived at our bed and breakfast. Set on the edge of the coast, overlooking the sheltered sea, it was one of a small stretch of buildings between Port Ellen and Port Charlotte, not 100m down from Bruiladdich Distillery. Unfortunately shut to visitors, it still smelt of fermenting barley and was a lovely thing to be near.
Prior to Covid changing everyone's plans, we had arranged for a driver to take us round to some of the distilleries, tell us some of the history, and just generally be our desi so we could all not worry. Despite having to reschedule, he kept in touch, provided so much help and support and was just such a genuinely lovely guy, we were thrilled to be able to meet him in person on the Saturday. Dougie drove us around for 9 and a half hours, giving us drams from his collection, from all the distilleries who were shut or who we were unable to visit. He took us to historical sights, sweet talked a local cafe into doing takeaway lunch for us (they only did takeaway for dinner), answered all our questions, showed us how to cut peat at his peat bank... it was such a great day.
Some interesting facts for you.
There are nine distilleries on Islay, and while they weren't all open yet, we at least managed to visit them all.
Islay has very few shops - it's major attraction are the distilleries scattered across the island, so come Sunday morning when we checked out at 10am and all we wanted was a coffee? Yeah no. We had to wait til lunch and even then we only had one option which was less than enthralling. In fairness, it may have had a bit to do with Covid and recovering from that, but this was our experience.
Ferries to and fro are dog friendly so getting to sit on the top deck and dog watch / walk past with our hands loose by our sides in the hopes we would get a wet nose or the chance to pat them....life goals ;)
I don't like whiskey. Love the smell of it, but the taste.....it buurrrrnnnssss. I did manage to try 7 drams before needing to call it quits though! And only started pulling faces after the 6th, so I think I did quite well :D For comparison, Cameron managed 16 and finished most of them 😅
It was definitely worth the wait, especially to finally celebrate Cameron's birthday as he had wanted - 3 months late.
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