(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.
The attribute “stunning” I often feel is overused and through that sadly devalued. But when I watched Donny Wilcox’s videos from Islay, Jura and Colonsay this evening I couldn’t think of anything else but “stunning” several times. Some really amazing views and different perspectives, views I’ve never seen that way before. Let’s start with Islay and Colonsay:
Now let’s rewind to Donny’s arrival on Jura, his base for his time in the area:
And to close some more of Donny’s time on Jura, exploring Loch Tarbert:
I hope you enjoyed Donny’s videos as much as I did, the great views from the air, the sea and the land. Many thanks to Donny for sharing your adventures!
Back in May I shared some videos from a visit to Islay with a Royal Enfield Meteor 350. This time it’s a rented DL650 for a fairly short visit. Brent rode from Coupar (where he rented the bike) to Tarbert, which is where the interesting part of his videos from his motorbike tour around Scotland begins:
Day 3 sees him leaving Islay and he also rides past a mishap on the “Tarbert Bypass” (be careful on that road if you use it) while travelling north:
I hope you enjoyed Brent’s videos, let’s see what else I’ll find over the coming weeks as people share their summer holiday videos.
Not one but two videos today, brought to us by David Campbell also known as The Budget Biker. As you’ve probably already gathered he rides a Royal Enfield Meteor 350 at the moment, looking at his channel he has used other models before. His adventures started in Australia before more recently moving on to Scotland. And of course no visit to Scotland would be complete without a visit to Islay and Jura:
And straight on to the second part with the main part of his visit:
The beach around the two minute mark is of course Kilchoman beach and I think he made the right decision not to climb the wall at the church, as sadly it has become quite dangerous in recent years with the risk of falling masonry.
I’ve very much enjoyed the two videos, I think they have a great being on the road vibe. I’m not entirely sure, but it looks like after exploring Scotland and in particular the Scottish islands he might have moved on to Northern Ireland as I write this. Either way, if you’re interested in more of his adventures check out The Budget Biker channel on YouTube.
Haven’t posted much here this year and the last post so far this year was the traditional April Fools joke. Time to change that and get going again a bit more. How about a nice Islay video with some nice wildlife shots? Some good views in this one, especially towards the end, so make sure you watch it all:
Billy Heaney visits Cornabus Farm and a variety of other places on Islay’s south coast as well as on the Rhinns of Islay, spotting a good mix of wildlife, in particular birds. And as I said, the best of his spots is at the end of the video.
Some Islay history from the YouTube channel of the Ionad Chaluim Chille Ìle – Islay Gaelic Centre today. Some old Gaelic tunes sung by a variety of people from Islay, combined with pictures and film footage from around the time the recordings were made, during a Ceilidh in Bowmore in 1967. I hope you enjoy them:
The original recordings were loaned to Gaelic Centre by Etta Shaw, the Gaelic Centre then digitised them and added the pictures and film footage from the time. Great work by everyone involved!
I’ve had a few rather busy weeks in the day job, so haven’t got around posting here since New Year’s Day. But today I had a day off and used the opportunity to quickly edit a short Islay video. This video is kind of a first for me, as it’s my first vertical video apart from the Islay Shorts clips I’ve uploaded. But then I thought waterfalls filmed on a mobile phone really fit the vertical format:
I hope you like the video, the footage is just as recorded with the phone. While that means there is some slight wind noise (in particular on the fourth clip) I feel the original sound of the waterfalls works best.
While they are not very big I think these waterfalls are very nice and “videogenic” (not sure if that is a word? Is that the correct equivalent to “photogenic”?). So many of them in such a small area is quite impressive.
This post left me with a decision to make, which category to pick? Same as the two previous posts it mentions an Islay whisky, in addition it also features a new Islay video (even though you need to read all the way to the end to find it). In the end I decided to go with the Islay video option. So what have I been up to on Christmas Day?
Well, less than I had originally planned. I stayed up later last night than I had originally planned, leading to me sleeping in this morning. When I finally got up it rained quite heavily, so in the end I decided to skip my walk today and just take it easy at home. I relaxed, ate a lot of chocolate, Lebkuchen and food like that. Also some Chipolata sausages and rolls baked yesterday. And tea. And hot chocolate.
For my tea I has some nice beef steaks with garlic butter as planned. With them I enjoyed a bottle of the Innis & Gunn Laphroaig Islay whisky cask real ale (something I thought I had blogged about already, but it seems I haven’t). Followed by some chocolate cheesecake.
Then of course there’s today’s Islay whisky. I decided to go with the distillery I was tending towards when thinking about it last night and picked the Laphroaig Càirdeas 2022 Warehouse 1 as my Christmas Day Islay single malt. As regular readers might remember Laphroaig was my first love and remains one of my go to Islay whiskies. It doesn’t disappoint and for me it’s a great choice as my Christmas Day dram.
But there’s still a new Islay video to come. The footage as such is a bit older, from November 2015 to be precise, but at the same time it also reminded me of my most recent Islay visit in November 2022. While I had sunny spell there was also plenty rain and wind, which this video is about:
I recommend to watch it in full screen on a larger display/monitor, you’ll get to see much more of the rain coming down on the beach. In the second part of the video you get to see the beach on the move, I hope the footage gives a feel of a windy day on Kilchoman beach.
That’s all for today. Not sure yet what I’ll do tomorrow, but if the weather is nice I’m hoping to get out somewhere in West Berkshire or north Hampshire. There will probably also be a Boxing Day Islay single malt whisky (after the fish I’ve got on the menu for tea tomorrow).
The logical follow up to the Nice timelapse video from a flight to Islay post is quite obvious: The return flight. It takes a different route, flying across Islay and then along the west coast of Jura, including a view of Scarba with the Corryvreckan at the northern end of Jura. Didn’t look like it was running when Paul passed though. I hope you’ll enjoy the return flight as much as the outbound flight:
I’m hoping there will be more videos like this showing Islay and her neighbours in all their glory. Paul has hinted there might be videos with both straight ahead and side views, showing different angles.
I’ve shared a few videos of flights to/from Islay over the years, although I don’t think I’ve had a flight from Perth yet. Well, that’s what I found today. A nice timelapse video by Paul Barnett of a flight from Perth to Islay, passing Loch Lomond and the Clyde on the way. It’s only just over two minutes long, enjoy the fleeting views:
I quite liked the explanations of the places Paul passed on his way, thought this was really nicely done. Also found the views of the clouds flying past strangely fascinating yet soothing (obviously they don’t do that in real time). Well done Paul, thanks for sharing.