Islay's Northern Distilleries, and Back to the Mainland

Posted on 2007/09/12 21:29:16 (September 2007).

[Friday 7th September]
Today was our last day on Islay. We were booked on the 3:30 ferry back to the mainland, giving us the morning to fit in two last distilleres - those at the North of the island (and conveniently near to the fery port - Port Askaig - from where we'd be departing).

The first of the two distilleries was Caol Ila - a strong contender for my favourite Islay malt. The distillery was rebuilt in the 1970s, and is noticeably modern and industrial, but the location is still rather fantastic - looking out over the sound of Islay to the Paps of Jura. We went on the tour here, by now a very familiar routine (!) - but still interesting nonetheless.

After that, to complete the set as much as anything else, we also popped into Bunnahabhain. We didn't have time to go on a tour, so instead just took a few photos outside, and had a quick look round the shop, and then we were on our way.

It appears there isn't a whole lot to Port Askaig - one shop, one rather ropey looking hotel, and a small handful of houses. I had thought after our morning distillery visits we might me able to just wait there for the ferry, but that seemed a something-less-than-exciting prospect, so instead we headed back to the centre of the island for lunch, and ended up back in Bowmore. We had a bite to eat at the Harbour Inn there, which was quite nice.

So we headed back to Port Askaig after that, and got on the ferry. I was really quite sad to leave Islay - even though we'd only been there three nights, I had immediately fallen in love with the place.

We were back on the mainland around 5:30, and drove from Kennacraig straight to Inveraray, where we were going to stay a night to break up the journey a bit. I'd booked us a room at the Loch Fyne hotel, which turned out to be quite a good choice, as they had a rather nice spa there, which we had all to ourselves. So while presumably everyone else was having dinner, we enjoyed lounging around in the hot tub, jacuzzi, swimming pool, sauna and steam room.

After the spa we headed out for dinner. We initially tried the Loch Fyne Oysters place, some way out of Inveraray, but apparently we were just too late for last orders, so headed back into the town centre again.

After a little wander around we decided on The George Hotel, and I was very pleased indeed. It was more of a pub in atmosphere, and had a fantastic interior with bare stone walls. The food was also really good - very reasonably priced, great local produce cooked with real imagination. I was very impressed.

Hi John, I have been reading your Islay reports with great interest and I know how you feel when you say you fell in love with the place :-)

It's a magical island!

All the best
ron
http://www.islayinfo.com

Posted by Ron at 2007/09/23 17:35:38.

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