(New) IslayBlog.com, a blog about the Isle of Islay, Scotland
Cask Strength since 2006
John Munday and his best friend went to Islay in March 2022, staying at Easter Ellister Farmhouse. They mainly went for the whisky, but there were also visits to the beautiful beaches and some paddleboarding. Oh, and they were lucky enough to enjoy some amazing weather:
I hope you enjoyed the lovely views from the air and from the water, from the distilleries and from the beaches, all in glorious Islay sunshine. Nice work, John!
It’s time for this week’s Islay video. This weekend we’re going to Saligo Bay again (and will again in a future video, as it’s so videogenic, if that’s a word). The occasion was a breezy April evening a few years back with waves rolling in from the Atlantic and algae foam being blown across the beach by the blustery wind. I hope you enjoy the walk and views along the beach:
This was during high tide, so the water was coming up almost all the way to dunes, pushing in also by the strong winds. Managed to walk along the rocks at the foot of the dunes for some nice views in the beautiful mild evening light.
If you’d like to see more, I’ve just created an Islay’s Saligo Bay playlist with all my videos from this beach. Currently it contains 10 videos, I hope to add at least one more over the coming weeks. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel (if you’re not already subscribed), then you can be alerted to new videos whenever I upload one.
To close, well, if you’re a regular reader you know the drill: While I can’t promise anything I hope to publish another video next weekend. It will probably be a drone video, either revisiting Port Charlotte (long in the pipeline…) or of Finlaggan. Fingers crossed and watch this space.
Exciting and exclusive news for Islay whisky lovers and in particular whisky collectors today: In addition to actual bottles from the established distilleries you can soon start collecting virtual NFW bottles from Islay’s first NFID! The future of whisky collecting has arrived….
The brand new distillery is called AFIW™ Distillery (Not sure what AFIW™ stands for and how it is pronounced, I believe the name might be of Gaelic origin?) and will be completely located in the Cloud, meaning no impact on Islay’s creaking roads and other infrastructure.
So how will it all work?
Launched today you can either buy a limited NFW cask or a limited NFW bottle future. The first NFW casks will be calculated today using the extremely secure 512 byte P.E.A.T. (Petaflop Excentric Algorithmic Triangulation) method also used in AlbaCoin. The casks will then be aged for a minimum of 3 years (usually longer, 10 years or more) using the innovative new Blockaging technology.
Each cask is of course unique and the information is recorded in the Blockchain. Once the cask has aged for the time specified in the Blockaging (pronounced block-aging) token it can be bottled into individual virtual bottles, again each bottle is numbered and recorded in the Blockchain. The value of a cask (NFWC) and/or bottle (NFWB) will of course depend on their rarity. There will be some varieties where only one single cask will be generated (and subsequently a limited number of bottles). These will of course be more valuable than varieties with multiple casks and therefore more bottles.
Each bottling will have dedicated NFW bottle token virtual artwork, so that you’ve got something to look at while reading the virtual tasting notes. Meaning you can taste your rare and expensive collection virtually, unlike your real collectors bottles which are locked away in a safe.
This all sounds very fascinating, finally the future has arrived for the avid Islay whisky collector! Experts are predicting a brisk trade with significant value gains for both NFWCs and NFWBs.
Will you be investing in NFW from AFIW™ Distillery, the first NFID?
It’s about time I go through some of my bookmarks and notes from the last couple of weeks (or even months) and share some of the articles and more about or at least mentioning Islay. Hopefully you’ll find something of interest to read and possibly share:
To start with travel writer Peter Irvine shares his favourite spots on Scotland’s loveliest islands, which of course includes Islay and Jura. They are spots 6-9, the Paps of Jura, Geese at Gruinart, Carraig Fhada Lighthouse and the Machrie Hotel.
Not Islay specific (although Islay is of course mentioned, Irvine also calls for islanders to get more control over impact of tourism.
I walked it last year (and still owe you a post about it), the Sustrans website has a lovely article about the new Loch Indaal path between Bruichladdich and Port Charlotte.
Scott Begbie writes about Marvellous malts and pure moments on the magical island of Islay in the Press and Journal. Whisky, beaches, food and sunsets get a mention.
Uproxx (which seems to be a music, film and lifestyle website) writes about a whisky-centric trip to Scotland with a few stops on Islay. The Islay stops are Bowmore Hotel Lucci’s Whisky Bar and Kilchoman distillery. Also an honourable mention for Ardbeg and Lagavulin distilleries. Not to forget plenty Islay pictures.
To close someone from the Sunday Post tried the scones at the Craigard Kitchen at Ballygrant. They were very happy with them and will be back.
I’ll leave you with that for now, hopefully you found something interesting to read. More some other time.
This one took me a bit longer to edit than expected, so it’s only going out quite late this Sunday evening. But I hope the wait was worth it and you’ll enjoy this video of a drone flight around Lagavulin Bay. Obviously views of Lagavulin distillery and Dunyvaig Castle (well, the ruin of it). But there’s more, as I flew around the whole bay, so you get to see the Islay Marine Centre, Stormpods, the village of Lagavulin and more. There are also brief distant views of Texa, towards Port Ellen and over to Ardbeg.
And of course there’s something else: How good are your eyes (and attention)? Did you spot the Seal on the rock in the bay? If not you might want to watch the video again and see if you can spot it this time.
I’m hoping to edit another Islay video next weekend as well, but as usual no promises. The topic of the video will probably be Saligo Bay, but I haven’t made a final decision yet.
Time to share this weekend’s Islay video editing project. No 360° or drone footage this time, instead we actually stay quite low to the ground. For a brief moment we even go under water. We take a closer look at the old wreck of the Patti on Kilchoman beach as it looked in June 2015. As many will know the beach moves almost constantly and with it the visibility of the wreck changes. Sometimes it disappears completely, sometimes only the highest parts towards the stern are visible, sometimes the outline of the whole ship is visible. When I filmed the footage for this video it was the latter:
Not a lot is known about the wreck, I’ve been told the following: It is believed to be an early steamship with a square boiler, wrecked in the 1840s and called “Patti”. That’s about all known about her.
I filmed the footage with a GoPro camera in a waterproof housing, allowing me to get quite close to the ground and at one point even to go under water. Thought a different perspective of the wreck might be interesting for some. Also tried to pass quite low along the wreck, as the GoPro doesn’t have a gimbal its a bit rough, but I think it’s good enough to share. I hope you like what I’ve edited together.
Hoping to edit another video next weekend again, but as usual of course no promises. Haven’t made a decision yet, but most likely it will be another drone video, either of Lagavulin and Dunyvaig or of Finlaggan. As the saying goes, watch this blog (or subscribe to my YouTube channel).
As mentioned last weekend I was hoping to edit another Saligo Bay Islay video this week. Luckily I managed to do just that and YouTube processed it quite quickly as well (previous 360° videos for some reason took a long time), as this weekend’s new Islay video is a 360° video of a June sunset at Saligo Bay. It’s a about 11 minutes of all round views of the sunset from three different locations, starting down on the beach and ending up on the top of the dunes. I hope you’ll enjoy the views and the light:
Similar to previous 360° videos you can spot me loitering around in the background, walking around, enjoying the sunset and taking pictures. If you happen to look into the right direction at the right time you’ll also see me appearing out of / disappearing into thin air a couple of times. Haven’t worked out a way yet to avoid that when cutting together multiple clips from the same location.
Again no promises, but I’m hoping to complete another video next week. Haven’t decided yet what it will be, but I’m currently considering three options: The wreck on Kilchoman beach, Port Charlotte from the air revisited or Lagavulin & Dunyvaig from the air. Fingers crossed I can get one of them done.
This video was in a way seven years in the making. as I filmed the footage back in June 2015, edited a teaser in early 2016 and then … progress stalled. Not sure why, for some reason I didn’t edit the full version ‘director’s cut’. But now it’s finally done and I can share 7 minutes of great views around and over Port Ellen from the air with you. The flight starts at Carraig Fhada lighthouse, we then move over to the Port Ellen maltings and distillery warehouses before finishing off around the centre of Port Ellen. I hope you enjoy the views:
As the footage is from 2015 some things have changed in the meantime, one of the main changes I can think of will be Port Ellen distillery which is currently being rebuild. But of course there will be a few more. The character of the place as such won’t have changed though and the views are great in any case.
I’m hoping to continue the current run of a new video every week next week as well, but I can’t promise anything. If I do there’s a good chance of another visit to Saligo Bay in some form, possibly with a sunset in 360° or a sunny beach walk.
For various reasons didn’t get around to blog it earlier (one reason being that YouTube for some reason took ages to make it available in full resolution, even though it told me it had fully processed it for some time): Last weekend I uploaded yet another Islay 360° video. This one takes you to Port Charlotte pier and beach. Not much happening apart from the waves lapping on the pier and beach, also I’m loitering on the scene at times. Still, I hope you’ll enjoy a relaxing few minutes looking around:
Remember, as this is a 360° video you can look in any direction you want, you can either use the buttons in the top left corner or just press and hold your mouse button to drag and move the viewport. And if you look in the right direction at the right time you’ll see me appearing out of thin air at some point (not telling you when, you’ll have to find that yourself), this is due to the way I cut the footage I had available.
That’s all I have for today. If everything goes to plan I hope to upload another new Islay video this weekend. Not a 360° this time, possibly a drone video of another Islay village.
Feels like I’m on a roll, the third new Islay video in as many weeks. This week I’m taking you to the south coast of Islay, to Ardbeg. Here we spend 8 minutes just outside the distillery at the coast, all in glorious 360°. Meaning you can look whichever direction you want, left, right, up and down. Just grab the viewport with your mouse (or finger) and move around in the video. The first five minutes we spend on the pier at Ardbeg, provided you look in the right direction you can spot a group from Kayak Wild Islay passing by. The remaining three minutes we spend on the small hillock above the outdoor cask storage. I hope you’ll enjoy the Ardbeg coast in 360°:
This is the fourth video in my Islay in 360° collection, I think with the remaining footage I still have I should be able to add at least one but hopefully two more videos. Quite confident about a Saligo Bay sunset one and possibly a Port Charlotte coast video. What do you think about 360° videos, do you like them or do you prefer ‘old style’ videos?