The Adventure Begins…

The car was packed, the kayaks were strapped to the roof, Charlie our mini schnauzer had his holiday bandanna on and we were munching on homemade hot cross buns, still warm from the oven..the bumper Easter bank holiday weekend had well and truly arrived.

Every Easter my family and I bundle into the Renault megane and head off to the wilds of Scotland for a week away- it’s a chance to escape the daily grind of normal life- the places we go to are often quite remote so WiFi and signal is distinctly lacking, that means no social media, no emails- bliss. This year we headed to a new island destination: Islay- one of the Inner Hebrides archipelago, off the West coast of Scotland.

It’s a long trek to get there- 600 miles in the car and 1 ferry journey later we had arrived.

Whisky, whisky, whisky

Islay’s main claim to fame is its reputation for making phenomenal whisky. There are 9 distilleries on the island alone and gin is also made here. I am a gin fan, but whisky is unknown territory to me having only drunk it once on my 18th birthday-the memory is a little hazy to say the least.

We visited two distilleries- all I will say was the whisky was STRONG- it definitely had a distinctly peaty taste- apparently this is a product of the Islay water and the barley used to distill the whisky. I’m not sure it’s quite my cup of tea, but good to experience nonetheless! Some of the whiskys on display were over 30 years old and worth thousands of pounds so it’s clearly big business for the island and a big tourism driver.

We didn’t buy any whisky, but my mum did develop a liking for whisky marmalade, so most mornings started with boozy toast- what better way to start the day.

What we we were really here for was the scenery, the wildlife, the kayaking and the photography- and perhaps the odd whisky-gin tipple on the side!

As always with the Scottish islands, Islay certainly didn’t disappoint..

*More coming soon*