(New) IslayBlog.com, a blog about the Isle of Islay, Scotland
Cask Strength since 2006
A short post, may be just a link or similar
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!
First Friday evening in October 2019. It’s been a long and busy week in the day job, so I’ve decided to treat myself tonight with a dram or two from one of my favourite Islay distilleries (if you read this post you should be able to figure out which ones they are). Here’s a picture of the dram for tonight:
Enjoying it with some nice 85% dark chocolate while pondering that I should probably blog here more again. I’ll try my best.
This isn’t strictly speaking an Islay post, although I came across it because someone mentioned Islay in a comment to it. I’m not even sure if Rachel has ever been to Islay. Either way, Rachel makes birds from stained glass and I think they look absolutely amazing. The birds include Choughs and Hen Harriers, birds frequently spotted on Islay. If you know your birds you will spot the Chough in her tweet immediately:
For more of Rachel’s work including the already mentioned Hen Harrier and also some Greenland White-fronted Goose head over to Rachel’s website. It is being rebuilt as of writing this, but you can page through two excellent albums of her work.
Just a quick heads up tonight, the details for the 2019 WalkIslay Islay walking week have been announced/published today. I’ll write up a more detail personal preview over the coming days with some pictures and thoughts which walks I’ll probably participate in.
To read up on the walks head over to www.walkislay.co.uk for the details of all of them (well, as of writing this less one, where the details are still being finalised).
Having had to miss out on the 2018 edition through my leg injury I’m very much looking forward to catching up this year (fingers crossed nothing goes wrong this time…).
There are a number of lighthouses on and around Islay and Jura. Some are fairly easy to see and visit, others require quite a lot of effort, either a long walk or a trip with a boat. uklighthousetour is on a mission to visit lighthouses around the UK and recently visited Islay and Jura. Three blog entries describe what they found:
Looks like they had a great and successful time on Islay and Jura. Links found via the Facebook page of Islay Sea-Adventures, who provided the RIB for some of the visits.
Just a quick update on the Vote for Islay at FilmG 2019 entry from December: One of the three entries from Islay has been shortlisted for an award. The entry from Islay High School in the Youth category, ‘Am Bruadar’, has been picked in the FilmG Award For Gaelic – Learners category. Congratulations, and fingers crossed you will be announced as winners at the awards ceremony in Glasgow in February.
In addition, voting for the People’s Choice award is still open. You can vote once a day. Here are the entries from Islay again, so that you can vote for them:
Voting is simple: Go to the page for the entry you want to vote for and click on the yellow ‘Vote’ button. Done. Happy voting!
It’s Christmas eve, as good excuse as any to open a very nice bottle of Islay single malt whisky for Christmas. After the Gorag 02 a few months ago I decided to open another bottle of the cask exploration series, the Eolas An Deididh 07. Bottle #356 of 393:
It was aged for 9 years and finished in a Rivesaltes wine cask from the far south of France. 2 years younger than the Gorag 02. Very nice with some 85% dark chocolate after the venison burger I had this evening.
Some good news for Islay visitors planning to arrive by plane. So far most scheduled flights to Islay (i.e. not the Colonsay/Oban route) were from Glasgow Airport (GLA) only. That’s about to change: From March 2019 travellers will also be able to fly to Islay International Airport (ILY) from Edinburgh Airport (EDI). From the Loganair press release:
A 34-seat Saab 340 will fly the Edinburgh to Islay route – the capital city’s first ever scheduled air link to the Inner Hebrides. The service will commence on 25 March and will operate up to daily, offering new links from Edinburgh to the “Queen of the Hebrides”, which is experiencing significant growth in tourism and business following the opening of new hotels and growth in the golfing and spirits distillery sectors.
I think this should open up some new routes and opportunities in particular for visitors from further afield, I believe from some countries there are no direct flights to Glasgow, but there are to Edinburgh.
Last night on Twitter Bruichladdich asked what our Friday night dram was. My honest answer was that it was their southern competitor Laphroaig with their 10yo cask strength batch 010. And that if I was good on Saturday and got stuff done I would reward myself with one of my Bruichladdich Port Charlotte valinches. Well, I did get a sufficient amount done, so I picked this one from my shelf:
This is bottle #267 of 360 of the Port Charlotte cask exploration o2, Gorag. Aged 11 years in a Pessac-Leognan cask (I must admit, I have no idea what that means apart from that it is a wine cask. But it tastes wonderful).
An interesting video I managed to find recently, mostly filmed during a walk from Loch Gruinart, past Gortantaoid out to Mala Bholsa in the north west of Islay. There are also some nice views of the Eas Lathan waterfall in Doodilmore River. In addition to impressions from the walk we also get to see a few glimpses of Machir Bay and from the ferry crossing. Enjoy: