Reaching the Isle of Islay

On the 5th of July we made our way by ferry to the Isle of Islay. It is well known as the island of scotch whisky with 8 distilleries currently on the island. What isn't played up as much is that it has wonderful natural areas, great sandy beaches, and nice little towns, making it feel so comfortable to just be there taking it all in. We were there from the 5th of July until the 8th of July, camping the first night and then spending the next two nights at a new bed and breakfast just outside of Bowmore.

Our days went a little like this:

5th of July, Friday

• Arrive in Port Ellen by ferry a little after 1pm (a lucky break meant we got to the island earlier than we had expected because we made an earlier ferry)
• Drive from Port Ellen up and around Loch Indaal to Port Charlotte and then the Port Mor campground (a great campground with modern facilities all for 16 quid for two people
• Set up the tent and get a bit antsy to do something
• Drive up to Bruichladdich Distillery and enjoy a late afternoon tour, which keeps us there beyond closing and the staff even pull out a guitar and sing before we leave.
• Drive up and out along along the southwest coast down to the southern tip of Portnahaven and Port Wemyss, enjoying the coastline.
• Drive back to Port Mor and have dinner at their small cafe.
• Enjoy the slow long sunset of the Scottish evening

6th of July, Saturday

• Breakfast at the Port Mor cafe
• Drive up to the newest, smallest, farmhouse distillery, Kilchoman for an excellent Americano and then a wee tour. They have only been open since 2005 so their product is still quite young.
• Change scenic locations, going down to the far southeastern end of the island and check out the Kildalton peninsula. Have a late lunch at the Ardbeg Old Kiln Cafe - fantastic place for lunch with great food and fresh coffee.
• Take the deluxe "Through the Decades Tour" at Ardbeg.
• Go out and see the Kildalton cross and then go out to the end of the road and walk along Claggain Bay (thinking a lot about what a fantastic place it would be to land a kayak)
• Get checked into our wonderful bed and breakfast Dha Uhlar and meet our host Jim and his family. It has only been open a matter of weeks when we stay there. He has also set up the house next door for a full house rental. Can't recommend it enough.
• Decide to go out in the rainy evening for dinner at the Harbour Inn Bar. Definitely upscale, not just bar food. We paid quite a bit but got to spend a nice slow evening there in the fading light and even had a great cranachan trio dessert with a dram of Ardbeg's 1990 Airigh Nam Beist.

7th of July, Sunday

• A complete Scottish breakfast at the bed and breakfast.
• Headed down to the Kildalton trio for a tour of Lagavulin, but see that we can easily wander over to the Dunyvaig Castle ruins for a small exploration before the tour.
• Head just a few minutes up the road to Laphroaig for both a tour and a food and single malt pairing taste session. We meet up with a couple from Sweden and Urse and Kevin, a father and son from Switzerland, enjoying a very leisurely afternoon of talking and getting to know each other.
• Drive back up to the seven mile beach along Loch Indaal. The drive out it treacherous because it was once a road but is so deep and heavily potholed that we bounced out to the beach. It was by this point that we nicknamed the car Tigger.
• Steph got her first taste of driving in the UK on the beach and then back up the road to the airport.
• Decide to head back into Bowmore and have dinner at the Lochside Hotel, which was definitely good comfort food and wonderfully fresh fish.
• The evening lingers so we decide to head up to Finlaggan, the ancient seat of the MacDonalds - Lord of the Isles, at its height in the 1300s and 1400s.
• Just a small road trip to Port Askaig to make sure we know were to try and catch an earlier ferry on Monday, with a peek at the port site of Caol Ila. (Technically we visited all eight distilleries, but only went through seven of them, this was the only one we didn't make.)
• A country drive along the Great Glen Road before making it back to our bed and breakfast.

8th of July, Monday

•  Another amazingly full Scottish Breakfast, this time Jim remembered the beans. He was great about saying we didn't have to rush out and could even leave our bags longer if need be. 
• Down the hill into Bowmore Distillery (the islands oldest surviving distillery) and a nice leisurely tour and lingering looks at Loch Indaal. We saw Urse and Kevin as we were leaving and they really tried to encourage us to stick around and do a tour with them. They were great gentlemen and made a wonderful plan of this trip to celebrate Kevin's 30th birthday.
• A stop up at Bridgend and Islay Ales. They had lovely ales and it was so surprising and nice to have local beer on the island home of scotch whisky.
• We are very early for the early afternoon ferry and decide to make a pitstop at Bunnahabhain Distillery. We convince ourselves that we are only on standby for the ferry, so why rush, thus sticking around for a tour. They have stopped production in order to fully clean everything, but it is still neat to see.
• We get down to the ferry terminal, 6th in the standby line for the ferry from Port Askaig back to mainland Scotland. We are fortunate enough to get on the ferry so that we can make it across the country to Chris and Donja's without it getting too awfully late or having to find lodging at the last minute.

It was a great start to this vacation and rather than discuss every minute detail we decided to do it through a slideshow.