Experiencing the Swiss way of life with my legs, an iPhone, and a 360° camera.
Our final day in Scotland started with a relaxed Scottish breakfast and some rain. We walked around the harbor area heading from the center of Campbeltown to the north end where the Glen Scotia distillery is located. Glen Scotia is another distillery that was not on my radar before this trip but is absolutely on…
Cadenhead’s is known as Scotland’s oldest independent bottler dating back to 1842. William Cadenhead was a renowned poet and proper citizen of his era. Upon his death, the company was managed by Robert Duthie who started as the superintendent of the Scottish Orphanage in Bombay. Duthie’s tenure at Cadenhead’s was successful until the Great Depression.…
The Glengyle Distillery is on the same property as the Springbank Distillery and our tour with David covered both distilleries. Springbank, Glengyle and Cadenhead’s are all cooperating companies with the same owner. This is the only time that 3 tours in one day is possible. In the 1800’s there were 30 distillers in Campbeltown. By…
Our AirBnB was only a block away from the Springbank Distillery. This allowed us to sleep in a bit before our private tour. Springbank has a modest sized gift shop but they provide a special 10ml bottle for distillery visitors only. This is also true for Cadenhead’s warehouse tours. Springbank has always been a favorite…
I am so happy we visited Campbeltown, located down the Kintyre peninsula. There is one road that heads in the right direction and the Glasgow to Kennacraig 926 bus ends in Campbeltown. This means there should be no reason to pass up Springbank, Glangyle or Glan Scotia Distilleries because the bus to the Islay Ferry…
The final Distillery on our Islay adventure after Lagavulin and Laphroaig, was Ardbeg. It was well worth the wait. We took the Ardbig Tour and Ardbig Tasting at Two. I highly recommend this tour. Ardbeg is one of the distilleries that produces with production details. Then the tasting offers great, from the cask samples with…
Saddled in between Laphroaig and Ardbeg is the Lagavulin Distillery. Lagavulin is a Diageo owned distillery and as such its pretty automated. The buildings, however, are old school and beautiful. I really like how the distillery building was built before the paved road, you can tell this because it looks like the building is encroaching…
I have a good story about Laphroaig and a bad story. I’ll begin with the good story. I’m a Friend of Laphroaig dating back to about 2004. Back in those days I was new to Scotch. I went to my local retailer and said, “I’m looking for a Scotch, I don’t know what I want…
Driving to Port Ellen from Port Charlette, we thought we would take the main road around the inner bay, through Bowmore and past the airport. Instead we took the more direct high road which bypassed everything but provided a beautiful view. Port Ellen is a working town. The islanders have fun rivalries between themselves and…
The Kilchoman Distillery is one of a few distilleries that manages the entire process from ‘barley to bottle’. In fact, that’s the name of their main tour. After introducing ourselves to Emma the sister of Sarah from Bruichladdich, we began calling taxis for our return trip 2 hours later. Pro Tip; book your taxi rides…