Islay - distilleries by bus - hic! 03 August 2023

 


The forecast for today was to be very windy, so another day on Islay has been required.  👍

We decided on a bus trip to Bowmore and then on to Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte, giving us the opportunity to visit Bruichladdich and Bowmore distilleries.  Mary and Susie love a bus trip. It took two buses to get to Bruichladdich, the first to Bowmore and the second from there on to Bruichladdich (and two more to get back this afternoon).

The bus dropped us right outside the distillery - were one of my favourite whiskies is made, the Classic Laddie. As usual these days there was a huge array of different variations on the Bruichladdich theme. So we had to sample a few to try to understand the differences - this was at 11.00 in the morning.

Two of the Bruichladdich variations that I tried, and then I bought a third one.

After this first distillery visit we walked to Port Charlotte to have a chowder lunch in the Port Charlotte Hotel.  Very nice, and quite relaxing, though the chowder could perhaps have had a little more fish in it. A quick walk round Port Charlotte - took about 10 minutes - and then our third bus, back to Bowmore.

Like bees to the honey, we were straight into the distillery 

This was bottled in 1976 - the last time I was in Bowmore (doing my undergraduate geology dissertation).  Susie and Gordon have visited much more recently, and didn’t take much persuasion to visit again.

Two of the pricier bottles they have for sale.

More samples had to be tested - the 12, 15 and 18 year old whiskies. The Raffans bought a 15 year old. Mary relaxed in a big armchair in the distillery bar overlooking the quite stormy looking north end of Loch Indaal - she’s not a whisky imbiber.

The fourth and final bus was a bouncy rollercoaster ride back to Port Ellen - it added 1000 steps to our phone step counts! No singing.

As mentioned yesterday, whisky is a lucrative business, and as a result the distilleries are all extremely well kept and lovely places to visit.  Even the toilets can illuminate the creative juices of the distillers.

The ladies toilets at Ardbeg.

Even in Port Ellen old toilets are put to good use:


How could brown toilets
every have been fashionable?!

Today’s bird list has a slightly more respectable 31 species.

Our route today:


Tomorrow we move on.



















































Comments

  1. drbobAugust 5, 2023 at 8:00 AM

    Those toilets! Definitely a no! Is this really just a Smuggling run?

    ReplyDelete

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