(New) IslayBlog.com, a blog about the Isle of Islay, Scotland
Cask Strength since 2006
As the title says, some nice calming Islay inspired music today, only released a few days ago. The work is by Hania Rani in collaboration with Islay’s Bowmore distillery. The video shows many scenes on Islay, in particular around Saligo Bay (the poor piano carriers must have had their work cut out…). Lean back and enjoy:
I hope you enjoyed the music and the video, you can read more about the collaboration on Two Sensorial Spirits.
If you like your Islay videos ‘interactive’ I might have a little treat for you: After Kilchoman beach in 360° and Lossit Bay in 360° I’ve just uploaded my third 360° Islay video. This one takes us to Islay’s largest village and administrative centre, to Bowmore. You can take a look at the village from various places, from the Square, from the beach, from just outside the Round Church and from the pier. Because it’s 360° you can decide where you want to look (this is where the ‘interactive’ bit comes in), with your mouse you can move the camera angle in whichever direction you want, left, right, up, down, up to you.
If you look closely you can also spot me loitering in the background in various places. That’s the beauty (?) of 360° video, you can’t hide behind the camera (although on occasion you can hide behind objects like a wall or a car). I hope this doesn’t put you off watching the video.
I haven’t decided yet what my next Islay video will be, but I’m hoping to upload another one in a week or two. What do you think of 360° videos, like them or loathe them?
For many years Islay High School / Àrd-sgoil Ìle has been participating in the annual FilmG (GD/EN) awards, 2021 is no different. Many years they were shortlisted, on several occasions they even won one of the awards. This year they submitted two entries, one in the Fluent category and one in the Learners category. The entry in the Learners category, “Easga Bhuidhe na Feidh” got shortlisted, this is their entry:
The entry in the Fluent category, “A’ Lorg” unfortunately didn’t make it on to the shortlist in their category, this is their entry:
However, both entries qualify for the People’s Choice award, you can vote for them by going to the respective entry (use the links above to go there directly) and then clicking on the heart above the VOTE HERE / BHÒT AN SEO text. You’ve got until Monday 24/Jan/2022 to submit your vote. So please hurry and get your vote in!
Just enjoying a wee dram of Laphroaig Cask Strength (Batch 009) Islay single malt after a few Scottish real ales (from Drygate, Harviestoun and Fyne Ales. Unfortunately Islay Ales don’t ship to the mainland at the moment) earlier. So there’s nothing better than watching a nice video from an Islay visit with plenty distillery tours in December 2019:
I hope you’ll enjoy the video as well, maybe with a wee dram or two?
It’s time for another nice Islay video, I think. This time created by Naoki Otsuki from Japan (and Canada). The video takes us around Islay, showing various kinds of scenery. It’s a bit different than many other videos, looking closer at the finer details and sometimes taking a different perspective. I very much enjoyed it, I hope you will as well:
Naoki spent five days on Islay, check out the video description on YouTube for the details of what they did while on Islay.
Quite tired tonight after an exhausting week, so no difficult posting tonight, just a simple video with a bunch of nice Islay views. There are plenty of drone videos out there now, I think this is one of the better ones. Nice and calm, allowing us to really enjoy the views of some of the famous sights of Islay:
I hope you enjoyed the views of the Rhinns of Islay lighthouse, Portnahaven, Bowmore (incl distillery and Round Church), Seal Bay on the south coast and the American Monument on the Oa
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 that time of year again, same as last year it’s time to vote for Islay’s entries at the FilmG competition. For this year I’m aware of three entries from Islay so far, from the High School, from Bowmore Primary and from the Islay Voices. Same as last year everyone can vote in the ‘People’s Choice Prize’, to do that all you need to do is to go to the page for the entry you want to vote for (linked below the videos) and click on the ‘Vote’ button. Simple as that.
Let’s start with the entry from Islay High School, titled ‘Am Bruadar’. In it a ‘Hipster couple camp at view of Rhinns lighthouse, fall asleep and dream past, present and future there. There’s a surprise in store for them both!’:
You can vote for it on the AM BRUADAR – Àrd-sgoil Ìle, Ìle Bheò page
Next to the younger students from Bowmore Primary in their second competition entry (I believe their premiere at the competition was last year). For them ‘the children’s bad behaviour leads in the blink of an eye, to jump in time to a school in a hundred years, where wooden desks have been replaced with ipad tables and there is no need for a teacher as Alexa runs the class‘:
You can vote for it on the EACHDRAIDH – Bunsgoil Bhogha Mòir, G4-7 page
The third entry is from the Islay People/Voices about ‘the legacy of landscape, people and song captured in timelapse and aerial footage of Islay‘:
You can vote for it at the GUTHAN ÌLEACH – Muinntir Ìle page.
The voting is open until the end of January, the winners (including hopefully one from Islay) will be announced at the annual awards ceremony at The Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on 08/Feb/2019. If you’re on Facebook also follow the CnaG Ìle group for more.
Yesterday I came across what I thought was a rather strange article about Islay. Having spent two weeks on Jura Alexander from South Africa thought he could visit and get to know five (yes, 5) Islay distilleries in two (yes, 2) hours. It wasn’t very successful for him, as he writes in A whisky without peat is like soup without salt, but Islay visit is bland.
Assuming I read it correctly he crammed driving from Port Askaig to Bowmore, visiting Bowmore distillery, driving on to the south coast, visiting Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg, driving all the way back to Caol Ila, visiting Caol Ila and then driving back to Port Askaig into two hours. 2 hours. I estimate driving from Port Askaig to Ardbeg via Bowmore takes approx 45 minutes. Returning via the High Road should be slightly faster, may be 40 minutes. That’s a total of almost 1.5 hours. Which leaves just over half an hour for five distilleries. Or in other words about 6-7 minutes for each distillery. Where it seems he expected they just drop everything for him as soon as he arrived without any warning or preparation (otherwise he would have known that Ardbeg gets rather busy at lunchtime).
Seriously?
Do you turn up at Johannesburg’s busy top restaurants without a reservation and then expect them to serve you a five course menu over 15 minutes and enjoy that experience?
Here are my (personal, others might differ) suggestions on how to discover Islay: Spend a little time on preparation, plenty of websites and travel guides out there to learn about Islay. Allow yourself a few days to immerse yourself in the island, I’d say at least two full days excluding arrival and departure. Restrict yourself to may be 2-3 distilleries. That’s plenty enough. Get out of the car, walk around a bit, experience the peace and quiet directly, not through the windows of a car. Feel, view, hear and smell the wild and rugged landscape. Spend an hour or two walking along one of Islay’s beautiful beaches. Go out to one of the pubs/bars in the evening, especially if there’s live music on. Good chance you meet a distillery worker there. Visit some other places like Finlaggan or the Woollen Mill, get a feel for the rich history. And most importantly, don’t rush it, you’re on Islay time.
Rough Guides I think do it much better in their video, they take their time to really discover Islay, the multiple facets and what it is about:
Of course there are many more reasons to visit and discover Islay, but these five are already pretty good.
Do you have anything to add, any further thoughts on how to best discover Islay? Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments.
I need to share more links and web findings of Islay things I come across again. After all that’s what blogging originally was all about. So today I give you two interesting Islay whisky related links:
If I’m honest I’m not very impressed with a lot of the articles about Islay in the travel sections of many newspapers. Apart from a few exceptions they are usually written by someone who flew in for 2-3 days, did a distillery tour or two and had a few nice meals. But as I said, there are exceptions. Liza Weisstuch knows what she’s writing about. She’s been to Islay many times, I met her back in June 2011 (when she was on Islay for some real whisky experience at Bruichladdich) during one of her visits. And now she’s a got a big feature in the New York Times, online and if I understand it correctly on the cover of the travel section in the print edition next weekend. It’s called The Whisky Chronicles.
I’m not sure I can fully grasp the point of the second link for today. In my mind Islay is about slowing down, taking your time to enjoy. However, in July there will be a rather extreme whisky distillery tour on Islay and Jura:
A new ‘extreme’ whisky tour will take participants by foot, bicycle and kayak to visit 10 island distilleries over 60 miles, in just three days.
Apparently you won’t get much time to actually tour the distilleries or enjoy the samples (although you can collect the miniatures to saviour later). But if you’re still interested you can read more in WORLD’S ‘MOST EXTREME’ WHISKY TOUR LAUNCHES.