In 1992 on a wet and windy day on Islay we decided to visit Caol Isla distillery, mainly to get out of the rain! The distillery is located on the Sound of Islay with spectacular views of the Paps of Jura through the large windows of the still house. At the time I knew very little about the production of whisky and found the tour extremely interesting and informative. It was also very informal compared to the tours which take place nowadays! However, the most informal tour of an Islay distillery was one of Bruichladdich Distillery the following year. There was no visitor centre, just the distillery office up a flight of external stairs in the courtyard. The distillery only employed a handful of workers and one of them was asked to leave his grass cutting and to show us around. In the early 1990s we went on tours of all the operational Islay distilleries although we couldn’t visit Ardbeg as it was mothballed at the time and only re-opened in 1997. Bruichladdich also closed between 1994 and 2000 as it was deemed to be surplus to requirements.
Over the years since then I’ve visited all the distilleries on Islay and also the Jura distillery. Production of whisky has revived and increased in recent years and the distilleries all have modern visitor centres and have a variety of tours and tasting events. In 2005 the first new distillery on Islay for 124 years was opened at Rockside farm near Kilchoman and I had a tour of the new distillery a couple of weeks before it began production. It is one of the few independent distilleries in Scotland and also one of the few with their own floor maltings. All the whisky making processes from growing barley to the final bottling take place on Islay. Since purchasing Rockside Farm in 2015 the distillery has expanded. Another new distillery on the Sound of Islay opened in 2019 at Ardnahoe, between Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain.
In 1993 I came across an advert in a magazine asking people to buy bonds to enable a new distillery to be built on the Isle of Arran. Once the distillery had been built and the spirit it produced had been matured for the minimum of 3 years required for it to be called “whisky” bond holders would receive 5 cases of blended whisky and shortly afterwards 5 cases of single malt once the appropriate excise duty had been paid. It seemed a good opportunity and in 1998 I received 5 cases of Lochranza blended whisky and, in due course following further maturation, 5 cases of Arran Founders Reserve Single Malt. In 2024 I finally managed to visit the distillery at Lochranza and also the new distillery at Lagg. A few weeks later I crossed another distillery off the wish list when I visited Penderyn and experienced an excellent tour of the small distillery which has a Farady still, unique to Penderyn and something I'd never heard of. previously.
Distilleries
On our visits to many of the Scottish islands and on the journeys to and from ferry ports in Scotland for holidays we’ve managed to fit in visits to a number of distilleries and been on tours at most of them.
Islay: Ardbeg, Ardnahoe, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Caol Ila, Kilchoman, Lagavulin, Laphroaig
Islands: Highland Park, Jura, Lagg, Lochranza, Scapa, Talisker, Tobermory
Highlands: Dalwhinnie, Edradour, Oban, Royal Lochnagar
Wales: Penderyn
On the wish list:
Campbeltown: Springbank, Glen Scotia
Wales: Penderyn Llandudno Lloyd Street, Penderyn Copperworks Swansea
In addition to the distilleries’ own websites there are many more websites devoted to whisky run by enthusiasts around the world.
Drinking whisky
Apparently because I’m a Morris dancer I’m supposed to drink real ale. I do occasionally but I much prefer a single malt! Over the years I’ve acquired quite a wide selection of malts, including several at cask strength and also some special bottlings like Octomore from Bruichladdich which is possibly the most heavily peated whisky produced. My favourites come from the Kildalton distilleries on the south of Islay and also whiskies from Springbank distillery in Campbeltown and Highland Park on Orkney. I haven’t bought any new bottles recently as I am steadily working through my existing collection.
Someone once asked when offered a dram of whisky, “How much is in a dram?” and received the reply, “A dram is a measure of your hospitality” which seems an excellent explanation to me. When we stayed in the cottages at Kilchoman House many years ago and ate occasionally in the restaurant, if you ordered a whisky Stuart, the host, would ask “Is that a wee one or a sensible one?” and now, at home, I only drink sensibly!