Islay, Scotland
The reason we were on Islay was mostly to do with me. Justine loves Scotland, but I love the scotch that they make on Islay. It is typically peaty and smoky, and I love it! There are many distilleries here, with a history dating back as far as anyone can remember. The official distilleries date back to the early 1800s, and I was hoping to get to see as many as possible. But we also wanted to do some other things, including some sightseeing and hiking in the Scottish countryside. It was a lot to try and pack into a couple of days. And we had the notorious Scottish weather to deal with.
This is going to be a bit of a long post, with lots of photos of golf courses and distilleries - and maybe a Hairy Coo or two along the way…
Golfing, Hiking and Scotch!
Monday, I was up before dawn, hoping that the weather gods might be on my side. All night we had listened to the rain and wind howling across the bay, and when I looked outside, it was lashing down.
I have been a golfer for most of my life - I think I picked it up when I was 15 or 16 and have played varying amounts over the years. Of late, that’s generally need 9 holes at the little course on Galiano - not a real golf course by any stretch, but it’s fun, close by and great value. It was actually one of the things that sealed Galiano as a place for us to be long term.
I’m a pretty bad golfer, but somehow I have come to terms with this and figured out a way to manage to enjoy it nonetheless. As Scotland is the ancestral home of golf, one of my goals for this trip was to play a round at the golf course here. There’s only one on all of Islay, and it’s a really nice one, attached to a very high end hotel. It’s also a links style course, which is my favorite kind of golf course and typical of the courses you find in Scotland. So waking up to the weather we were getting was disappointing. I had one very small window of opportunity.
The forecast was calling for it to clear up, so I thought I would let Jus sleep in, and I’d drive over to the course to have a look. If the weather was looking better, I still might play.
On the way to the course, the rain lightened up. It must have been raining a lot, as the main road was completely flooded in one place! It actually remained flooded the entire time we were on Islay. In a place that gets a lot of rain, it’s surprising they don’t have better water management.
Despite these issues, I made it over to the course. It was still raining, if only lightly, so I sat outside the hotel in the car trying to figure out if it was worth playing or not. Eventually, I decided that I was not going to have another opportunity, and headed into the pro shop.
And they were not open yet.
I was about to give up on it, when the pro shop manager came in and opened up. They had openings (no one else was scheduled to play for another hour), and were able to get me shoes and clubs.
I also decided on a power cart, to try and speed up the round. While it would have been much nicer to walk, the threat of rain and the need to get the round done as quickly as possible made the call. It all ended up working perfectly, but it would have been much more enjoyable to walk.
Especially that course. I have to give a shout out to the pro shop manager - the service was amazing, and they really went way above and beyond to get me out and for me to enjoy the round. One of the things the course does is give you a yardage book with all the details of every hole, best lines to take for drives and details like that for each hole. Only high end courses do this (included), and what a difference it made!
The golf course is called the Machrie Links. And what can I say - it’s easily the most spectacular course I’ve ever played. The service is impeccable, right from the moment I walked in. It’s a very pricey round of golf, but who knows if I’ll ever make it back.
I’m very glad I played. I also got unbelievably lucky with the weather. Once the guys got me set up with my cart, water for the round, and even a small bottle of scotch (from the hotel) for later, the rain let up and the skies even cleared a bit. There was blue sky to be seen! And gale force winds, but more on that later… It seems that the weather gods were indeed looking kindly on me.
I started off at the putting green and putted a few to get a sense of the greens and the rental clubs. The clubs were high end and the same brand as my own, so it was at least similar. The putting green was soaked - half of the cups were full of water, and the green was soggy in places. There was not a lot to be learned, so I didn’t stay long. Plus I really needed to get through the round, if we were to do all the other things we wanted to do that day.
After a very short warm up, I headed over to the first tee. The first hole was a good start - open and straight forward, and I hit a great drive down the middle of the fairway! I was off to a good start.
The first bunch of holes were a mixed bag, in terms of my play. I hit some good shots, then some horrible ones. But I was playing bogey golf, which is fine for me. The course itself was amazing- in impeccable shape, with perfectly manicured greens, well maintained bunkers and fairways that might have been greens on some courses that I have played. It was an amazing experience
The corse gets very memorable as you get closer to the ocean. On the 6th hole I hit an OK drive, but did not realize what the second shot looked like. I was a bit offline so it was a blind second shot (there were many blind shots on this course), and it was hitting down and into a bowl, with huge dunes surrounding the green on three sides. And of course, covered in deep fescue. I hit the shot long, but found my ball (luckily).
The 7th hole is the signature on the course, running parallel to the ocean. It’s a beautiful hole, and I did as suggested and walked back to the back tees to take in the view.
On the 8th, the hole was playing dead into a gale force wind. It was unlike anything that I have experienced. I was driving the ball well - I had a bunch of drives up near 300 yards - but my drive on the 8th, which I think I hit pretty well, barely went 100 yards. It took me 4 shots to get to the green. The hole also has this part of the fairway that drops down at least 50-60’ - and of course one of my shots came up short, and I watched it roll down into the bottom of the fairway. I was left shaking my head.
The 9th, a 115 yard par 3 was somehow worse. Now I normally need less than a sand wedge to carry 115 yards - especially downhill. But this was into the gale, so I clubbed up to a 9 iron, figuring I had lots. The ball didn’t come close to making it to the green. It was crazy. And so much fun.
My game turned around on the back nine. I managed a few pars and a birdie! The wind being mainly at my back certainly help a ton. Plus the wind softened a bit and blue sky made an appearance. It was such an amazing morning. The birdie was memorable as I actually drove the green on a par 4! This might be the first time ever for me.
The next hole was a par 3. I had spectators, as the green crew was working nearby, and I managed to step up to the occasion and hit the green with my tee shot. A good two put later, I was riding pretty high. Birdie - Par was amazing!
The 17th is another signature type hole where you have to hit a completely blind tee shot over a a hill and hope for the best. It’s such a fun course and I hope I can go back - it needs to be played more than once.
I was able to get through the round in about 2 1/2 hours, which is pretty amazing. Like I said earlier, it would have been nice to walk, but time was a factor as we had a busy day ahead. I drove back to our cottage and met up with Justine, and we walked over to the main street and went to a cafe and got breakfast and lunch to go. We had a tight timeline. We had booked a scotch tasting experience at Lavavulin at 1:30, and needed to be there at 1:15.
As we wanted to explore more of the island, we had picked a short (3 km) hike on the southwest side of the island called the Mull of Oa. It is a nature reserve, and the descriptions had said it was a good place to see golden eagles and other birds, so that seemed right up our alley.
The drive out went through Port Ellen and past a new distillery being built. It looks like it will be a pretty amazing facility when completed, but they have a ways to go. The road through town quickly turned into another crazy single lane road, but we were fortunate in not hitting any traffic - on the way out anyways.
We eventually got to the car park for the hike and started the walk out on the well marked trail. A small group of high school age kids showed up in a school bus at about the same time, so we let them get a head start and put some distance between us.
The Mull of Oa is a nature reserve on the southwest corner of the island, and houses The American Monument, a 131 m tall monument built by the Red Cross to honour sailors from two shipwrecks off the Islay coast in 1918 during World War One.
The first stage of the hike up to the monument passes through open grassland/pastures and Justine was very excited to see our first Highland Cattle, affectionately known as Hairy Coo. There was a small herd of the them fairly early in the hike, and a few roaming up near the monument. The hike lead us through a swampy area of heather, across a boardwalk and started to rise up to the monument sitting on the cliff edge high above the ocean.
The views were amazing, but we couldn’t stay long as the wind was crazy! It was almost strong enough to literally blow you off your feet. And with the long drop down to the ocean, you really didn’t want to be up there for long! Plus we needed to get back.
We took the slightly longer trail back, weaving along the cliff edge for a while, before the path turned back inland through farm fields. I love that about the UK - everyone just accepts people wandering across their land, and the walkers always treat it with respect. We had to walk back through a herd of Justine’s cattle, but they did not seem the least perturbed by our wandering amongst them.
After getting back to the car we had about half an hour to get back to the distillery for our tour. The drive was supposed to be 25 minutes, so it looked like our day was working out well. On the way out, as we were traveling back along the single lane road (and calling ti a “road” is giving it more credit than it deserves - it’s a driveway), we were coming down a small hill and came face-to-face with a transport truck coming straight at us! Cars were bad enough on this narrow, winding single lane track, but now we had an 18-wheeler!
He flashed his lights at us a couple of times, which we eventually figured out that he wanted us to come towards him. There was a pull-out close by, and we were able to maneuver through, each of us giving enough space on the narrow lane. It was a bit nerve wracking! But we made it through and were able to make it back to Lagavulin on time for our tasting.
There are three distilleries east of Port Ellen - Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg, and all three were high on my list of places to visit. There’s a walking path that takes you to all three, but sadly we did not have enough time to do the walk. So we drove out to Lagavulin and parked in time to head in for the tour.
As we were heading there, we had a small wildlife encounter! We were driving along the narrow country lanes when we noticed a man with a bunch of photography gear off to the side of the road. He waved at us to slow down, right as three deer came bounding out from the side of the road! They ran up the road for a bit, before jumping up and over a stone fence and heading off into the fields. All three had nice antlers, and were the only deer we saw in Scotland while we were there.
The distillery was everything that I expected, with the beautiful whitewashed buildings sitting right on the ocean. I had booked the “Warehouse Experience” a tasting of 5 scotches in the distillery warehouse. When we arrived, I was a bit dismayed to see how many people were waiting for the tour. I think it ended up being 44 people in total. That turned out to be a non-issue as they had a good set-up in the warehouse, with chairs set out around a series of casks - and they pulled the whiskey that were were tasting straight from the casks!
We got to taste 6 different whiskies that day.
Cask Strength 12-year Old: We didn’t write down the details on this one. his is a pretty standard version of their whiskey, was poured from a bottle, and was a great start to the day.
Cask Strength 10-year Old from 2012 @ 52.1%. This was the first to come straight from the cask. It was out of a refilled hogshead (size of the cask).
Cask Strength 12-year Old from 2010 @ 57.3%. This one came from a re-charred red wine cask.
Cask Strength 16-year Old from 2017 @ 54.3%. This one came out of a refelled Butt (another type of cask) and was the last of the samples we would get that we’re drawn from the casks by the people on the tour.
18-year Old Bottle from 2005 @ 49%. What we learned was that the alcohol level is softened up a bit during the bottling process. They reduce it by adding water to the bottling.
26-year Old. This was the surprise of the day. Maybe they do it for every tour, but they certainly played it up like this was a one-off experience. But at £1,900 for the bottle, I was not going to be having any more, any time soon.
But the best part of the tasting was the person leading it. He’s been working for the distillery for 53 years and is set to retire in 8 weeks. He did such an amazing job of explaining the whole process, taking us through what we were tasting and answering all the questions that came up. And all with a certain Scottish flair that involve gently making fun of just about everyone. It really was an amazing experience.
After the tasting, we browsed the guest shop for a bit but did not buy anything. TheScotch was mostly crazy expensive, and with the limited amount you can bring back into Canada, I need to be selective. I was looking for some small sized bottles as gifts, and they did not have anything unique that you couldn’t by in Canada. They did have a very nice cycling jersey that I regret not having purchased; that and the 26 year old that we tasted, but it was £1,900 - almost $4,000!
After leaving Lagavulin, we headed up the road to Ardbeg. I’ve enjoyed their scotches over the years and we had been told that they had a really nice facility. That part ended up being true and we had a chance to walk around and take some pictures. I did feel a bit more “commercial” our touristy than Lagavulin, which surprised me.
I had not booked anything for this one, as I figured we were going to be hard pressed to align more than one tasting. Plus most of them were at roughly the same time, and much to my surprise many had been sold out when I checked months back. We figured that we’d be able to just pop inot tasting rooms, and generally it worked out.
They had a nice shop and beautiful tasting room, so I ordered a couple of their selections that you could only get at the distillery. We sat in their lovely bar and sampled them, before heading back out into the sunshine to explore the distillery a bit more.
As we were wandering about, we were able to go up to their still room, and the person working there was kind enough to let me poke me head in and look around. The stills are amazing - huge, gleaming works of art in cooper; monstrous things that each hold 23,000 liters, and they have 4 of them. It was something to see.
While Ardbeg was nice, it felt a bit commercial or gimmicky. It was fine, but it was missing something that Lagavulin brought. At this point I needed Justine to pick up the driving. So she had her first experience with the “other side of the road". She did great, and we headed off to Laphroaig.
Laphroaig was much closer to Lagavulin, and was the closest to town of the three. So it made sense for it to be our last stop on the back home at the end of the day.
This distillery has more history than Ardbeg and another amazing location, perched at the water’s edge. Once again, we didn’t have anything booked, but we were able to go into their tasting room and shop.
And they had a cool little museum that was worth looking around. Sadly, all of the distilleries have very short hours - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and they close their bars down at 4:30!
So we were scrambling at this point in the day. I managed to get an order in for some samples, and we were able to sit in the bar after they stopped serving.
I think the bar at Laphroaig was my favorite. It had a great atmosphere, big comfy leather chairs and a great vibe. And the scotches were amazing.
Justine went back outside to take some pictures while I enjoyed my drinks. Then we perused the shop and ended up buying a number of things to bring home with us.
Sadly, that was it for distilleries. There just are not enough hours in the in day! But we were not quite done with this part of the island. There was still a bit of daylight left, and some things to explore.
Instead, we headed back towards Lagavulin and parked in their car park. There are some old castle ruins along the coast, close to their distillery.
It’s called Dunyvaig Castle, and dates back to the 2th century, when a castle was built by Somerled, King of the Isles, on top of a fort or dun on a rocky promontory jutting into Lagavulin Bay. It had varying ownership until the castle was seized in 1647 by the Covenanters and passed into the hands of the Campbells of Cawdor, who held it until 1677, when Sir Hugh Campbell pulled down the castle and moved to Islay House. It’s hard to imagine why you would tear down a castle, but there are lots of ruins about.
Nick Gingrow so perfectly put it ‘It's a god damned castle abandoned on the coast of Islay with views of Lagavulin. What more could you want? A+” I have no idea who this dude is, but that quote made me laugh out loud when I saw it on Google.
There was an easy path that led down to it, and we spent some time enjoying a different view back to the Lagvulin site, taking more pictures. I’ve taken so many photos - it’s going to take forever to go through them all!
After enjoying the scenery, it was time to head back and call it a day. We had enjoyed a very busy one. Port Ellen is a pretty sleepy little town, and there are not a lot of food options. We started at the Port Ellen Hotel, but they were fully booked. The other main restaurant was closed on Mondays, so we were left with a Chinese take out place. So we made our order and waited for our food to be made.
It actually worked out really well - we took our order (they were very quick) back to our cottage, served it up and had a nice, relaxing night in, watching some shows on the iPad, having a beer from Fyne Ales with our really excellent take out. It was a fine, relaxing end to a very full and busy day.