Islay

The obvious reason to go to Islay is for the scotch.  Well I'm not much of a Scotch drinker (as in I don't drink it at all - tastes too much like swallowing fire) but my dad enjoys it.  So the trip was going to work out pretty well.  I could drive him around from distillery to distillery getting to see all the scenery on the way and he could taste as much scotch as he would like.  

There are 8 distilleries on Islay and they are building a new one.  Over the course of our 4 days on Islay we managed to visit them all!  We visited Bunnahabhain the first day because it was about a 15 minute drive from where the ferry dropped us off.  Fun fact:  The distilleries all painted their names on the shore side so that in the olden days when boats were delivering their goods, they would deliver it to the right distillery.

Over the next days we visited Kilchoman (it uses barley actually grown on site), Laphroaig (which we toured and they are the only whiskey to carry the Royal Warrant of the Prince of Wales), Lagavulin, Ardbeg (which was my favourite purely from a cosmetic point of view), Bruichladdich (pronouced brook-la-dee for those who are confused like we were), Bowmore, Coal Ila (produces the most scotch on Islay - 6 500 000L per year!).  And we even visited a distillery that isn't open yet, Ardnahoe opening in 2018.

Barrel Signed and corked by Prince Charles - It will be sold for charity

Ardbeg's Scotch Display

  We did do some non-scotch related activities as well.  We visited the Kildalton Cross which is considered the best surviving celtic cross in Scotland carved around 800 AD.

We also did some hiking.  We hiked through a field of sheep to get to Machir Bay.  The weather wasn't in our favour but it was still a lovely walk.

To most countries this would be a weed - But to Scotland it's their national flower!

Baby Blackface

Machir Bay

We also hiked around the Mull of OA which was a stunning hike.  When we got to the coast we could actually see Northern Ireland.  The hike was made even better by a very large herd of highland cows who were very obliging for my paparazzi style photography.

Striking the model pose

Our last and definitely most wet hike was to the square lighthouse and Singing Sands beach.  I was trying to take a photograph of Lagavulin from the beach when a wave came up around a rock and soaked me from behind.  My pants were wet up to about mid shin... Not my finest moment!  And the picture I got was definitely not worth being that wet.

Carraig Fhada Lighthouse

On our way home we took a ferry from Islay to Oban (my dad loves boats and this was a longer boat ride than the normal ferry).  We finished the trip with a nice drive home from Oban and a pitstop to visit Kilchurn castle, because no trip in Scotland is complete without visiting at least one castle!

And I think I will leave it there.  Amazingly I am in my fourth week of rotations since this trip.  The next post will include some information about those rotations and my many many firework photo attempts!