Full

Too difficult to choose a photo today as we ended up doing a lot, so there are some extras….
Woke to lashing rain and wind, but as we’ve found before, on the islands the wind means no weather conditions last very long, so we waited a little til the heavy rain finished, chatting to our host and giving advice on how to run a B&B (we’re his first guests).
We’d hoped to go to the beaches today but given the drizzle we headed to Outback craft gallery and coffee shop we’d read about that was near a beach, thinking that if/when it cleared up we’d go down there. We had a longish drive along deserted but unexpectedly bumpy roads (my low slung car doesn’t like country roads!), but when we arrived it was closed down…looks like for refurbishment. We would have walked down to the beach but the rain started again, so we took a local’s advice and headed to Kilchoman distillery to get a coffee and look around. Lovely visitor centre with a huge open fire and comfy armchairs….
We decided that, whilst we don’t drink whisky, we should do a distillery tour whilst we’re here and booked in at Laphroaig so had another longish drive on the quiet roads down to it and arrived just in time for the start of the tour (extra collage). We were struck by what seems like lots more sheep and cows (not hairy coos) across the landscape here as we drove through.
Very interesting to hear about the science behind the process and wonder at how anyone discovered/developed it! We had tiny sips of a few after the tour…quite liked the Lore version… I think it’s just neat spirits I have trouble with rather than whisky per se, so I took the sample bottles home to try one evening. We liked the wall of flags (extra) that were in the visitors’ centre for people to plant in their purchased square foot of land around the spring that brings the precious water to the distillery.
The weather was much brighter by the time we’d finished and we had time to go to the ancient woollen mill for a visit. Another opportunity to wonder at 17th century machinery (operated by the same family over very many years!). S managed to buy some tweed for her upholstery which looked lovely, and we fondled the cashmere throws but didn’t buy!
Stopped next at the White House craft shops and got some Islay gin for Kt&T since I’ll be staying with them next weekend.
We drove to the beach to try and find some interesting shells or etc but surprisingly little to pick, so we drove on down to Portnahaven to wander around the pretty fishing cottages clustered around the harbour and see the lighthouse and the huge waves crashing against the rocks further out on the coast.
Home for a bit of a rest before going to Lochindaal seafood kitchen just down the road in Port Charlotte. Had delicious local seafood plates (extra) which were simple but really delicious and we wrangled our way through them in near silence as we concentrated on cracking and poking and sucking the shells. Yum!
Home for a repair shop episode on iPlayer whilst we had a cup of tea, then an earlyish night. Another lovely day!