I’m home from a 10-day island-hopping extravaganza in
Scotland. It was wonderful. Scotland is always wonderful. In my most humble way
I’ll say that this is my 5th trip, and I am busily planning for trip
6. If I could afford to buy a place there and spend months at a time, I would,
that’s how much I love being there.
So, the latest trip. This trip and the last 2 were with a
group of friends, who are part a of a scotch-drinking group at the Dundee Dell
here in Omaha. The Dell has over 800 open stock bottles of scotch and hosts a
scotch tasting on the 1st Sunday of every month. Yes, I like scotch.
Do I like it as much as these other guys? Wellllllll, maybe not at that level,
but I do really enjoy a good dram, and I enjoy tasting different ones.
Every 3 years this group goes on a distillery tour of
Scotland, and I jump on those coat tails for a trip to Scotland. Sure, it’s not
the trip I would plan out for myself—not a single woolen mill or yarn shop on
the list. However, I’ve been all over Scotland, so it’s been worth every tour.
This latest trip was a bit of a
diversion. Normally, they’d be going next year on their regular distillery
extravaganza, but we all wanted to go to the Islay Whisky and Music Festival,
Feis Ile.
We also wanted to go to some of the islands in the Inner Hebrides, specifically
Mull and Skye. Everything about this trip was different from the others, and
that’s a good thing. Sure, we went to distilleries, but we also had more time
for shopping and just walking around, doing touristy things. It was awesome!
Let me give you the down and dirty
outline of what we did. Later I will do posts dedicated to different aspects of
the trip.
We landed in Edinburgh and
immediately headed to south to Kennacraig to catch the ferry to Islay. The
first rule of traveling the islands: Don’t Miss the Ferry! We docked in Port
Askaig, Islay, and said “Hello old friend!”
We dropped the bags at the Bowmore
Hotel, then walked down to the Bowmore Distillery for their open day. Each
distillery has an “open day” which is their celebration and each distillery
produces a special festival bottling, available on that day. We were way too
late to get a bottle, but we did get in a tour, a few drams, and listened to
some great music. Dinner at the hotel, then we all crashed.
Next day was the Kilchoman
(keel-ho-man) Distillery’s open day, and we went early for a tour. Then, we
joined the line to buy the festival bottle. Well, my husband and one of the
other ladies from the group stood in line. I walked around and did other
shopping in their gift shop and got the hubby a cup of coffee and a slice of
sponge cake. He stood in line for an hour, the least I could do was feed him
some refreshments. After that, we ate a delicious lunch at the Bridgend Hotel
(where I’d like to stay next time), then headed over to Bruichladdie (brook
lahdee) Distillery for a tour with the manager, Duncan. Bruichladdie is one of
my favorite distilleries and I always recommend it as a place to tour. Then we
had dinner at the Harbour Inn. We continually go there and it is continually
way too expensive. Tasted good, though.
Next we went on the Ardbeg boat
ride, as in a boat ride sponsored by Ardbeg Distillery. We left from Ardbeg on
a powerboat that took us out onto the MacTaggart estate to a bothy cottage
where we had lobster for lunch and a whole lot of Ardbeg, including the
festival bottling.
After that we made a whirlwind tour to other distilleries to
buy whisky. We went to Laphroig, Caol Ila, and Bunnahabain, which was winding
down its open day. That night we had dinner at the Indian restaurant in
Bowmore, which we will never do again.
Next day was Ardbeg’s Open Day, so
we, of course, went and got the bottle, while some of the guys played golf.
Ardbeg’s activities had an Olympic theme, so there were games and a parade of
nations, which we participated in. We marched to the Proclaimers’ “100 miles”
with a guy from Colorado who held the flag. We finally ate at the café (always
wanted to and never had before) and had delicious soup and a sandwich.
Afterwards we went to see the Kildalton Cross and the cemetery. The wonderful
people at the Bowmore Hotel squeezed us in for dinner, even though they were
swamped with a birthday party. And it was delicious.
Early morning to catch the ferry
the following day. We drove up to Oban, getting there early enough to explore.
We went to the Oban Distillery, did a tasting, and bought a bottle. I kind of
like this pattern of no tours, just drinking and buying. Anyway, Oban is a
tourist trap—it’s population triples in the summer. There are 2 great knitting
shops, but it was Sunday, and they were closed. Later we took the ferry to the
Isle of Mull. We got to the Western Isles Hotel just in time for dinner—the most
amazing dinner with the best view.
Mull is gorgeous and has a cute
village with some nice little shops. It also is the home of Tobermory
Distillary, where we had a great tour. We had time to do some shopping before
getting on the ferry back to the mainland for a very twisty, curvy road up the
western coastline to catch the next ferry to the Isle of Skye. We got to the
Advasar Hotel and hung out in their pub and had dinner.
I wish we had had more time on
Skye. It’s a gorgeous place. We toured the Talisker Distillery, which is a
fabulous whisky but a horrible tour. We drove around some, did some shopping in
Portree before going to Uig to catch the ferry to Isle of Harris, where we,
again, got there in time for dinner at the hotel.
The Isles of Lewis and Harris are
the same landmass, but they are vastly different. Lewis is more rocky. We went
to St. Clement’s Church then headed over to Harris and toured the Abhainn Dearg
distillery. This was a real treat because they are just getting started. It’s
very compact and laid back. I felt lucky to have seen it and bought a bottle of
their 3 year old. We drove around a little more, then headed to our hotel, the
Thorlee Guest House for the night.
The next morning we took the ferry
to Ulapool on the mainland and started our gorgeous, scenic route across the
northern coastline to Thurso, waaaaay on the other side of the Highlands. It’s
at Thurso that the hubby and I met knitter/podcaster Louise and went to her
house for dinner with her husband and kids. It was one of the best times we had
on the trip.
The next day we headed south,
stopping at Old Pultney Distillery and The Dalmore Distillery to do some
shopping, before stopping in Inverness. We stayed at The Glen Mhor Hotel, a
lovely place on the river, and had a great dinner after a day of shopping and
just walking around the city. After being on the remote islands, we felt a
little claustrophobic until we got used to it.
After a good night’s sleep, we headed
to Edinburgh. Even though we got stuck in traffic for some bridge repair, we
got into Edinburgh early enough to walk around the Royal Mile, do some
shopping, do some sightseeing, and have dinner at one of our favorite Italian
restaurants, before going to the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in Leith, called
“The Vaults.”
All too soon it was time for one
more sleep then back to the airport to fly home.
That is more than enough for one
post! Did I lose anyone? The posts after this will be more focused. Hope you
come back!
