The Three Distilleries Pathway

Tuesday 18th April 2017

Early at the start of this day I caught a bus from the Port Charlotte Youth Hostel on the island of Islay through Bowmore and Port Ellen, the largest towns on the island, and I didn’t get off the bus until I reached the Lagavulin Distillery. I must say that for many years Lagavulin has been my favourite scotch whisky and I was looking forward to visiting the place where this gorgeous, heavily peated delight is distilled. In fact the only reason I had come to Islay was so that I could visit this distillery whose produce I have adored for many years, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was fortunate to be taken around the distillery on my own which enabled me to ask as many questions as I wanted and savour every special moment from sampling the fermented wash to standing in the control room and seeing the screens that the distillers use to monitor the process from start to finish. This is a lovely, relaxed distillery full of grandeur and quality as befits the rich, smoky whisky that is produced within these walls. It was astonishing that such a quaint, little distillery could produce such an exquisite whisky that is admired the world over.

At the end of the tour I had a taste of the distiller’s edition as I am already very familiar with the sixteen year old, but I found that the second maturation in old sherry casks made this special edition too sweet for my taste. The sixteen year old Lagavulin is what I have at home, and it is that intense peaty taste that I have fallen in love with and is unrivalled, and cannot be improved. From the distillery, while trying to savour the memory of the distillery tour, I made my way east along the road through the tiny community of Lagavulin until on the far side I came across a footpath that has been built to link the three distilleries on the south coast of Islay. I soon came to a signpost pointing down a lane that leads towards Dunyvaig Castle so heading past a row of cottages I reached a row of outcrops that fringe the coast where I had great views of the Lagavulin Distillery across Lagavulin Bay. Dunyvaig Castle is severely ruined and there were warning notices deterring anyone who might want to climb the deteriorating walls, but I my eyes were only on the small distillery across the bay.

Back onto the pathway I continued east along the wide, tarmacked path to the Ardbeg Distillery, the easterly of the three distilleries, where I found a rather more extensive complex of buildings than at Lagavulin. However when I got there I discovered that I had just missed the tour and there wouldn’t be another for almost four hours. It was disappointing, but I hadn’t checked the timing of the tour prior to coming to the distillery, and I certainly hadn’t booked in advance. Turning around I headed back up the road stopping on top of the rocky knoll that overlooks the distillery before setting off back along the Three Distilleries Walk. The path follows the road between Ardbeg and Port Ellen giving whisky lovers easy walking from the ferry terminal to the three closely located distilleries, but I didn’t like it. The path is heavily manufactured so it could be accessible not only for walkers and cyclists but also pushchairs and wheelchairs. It bulldozes through the landscape like the road whereas I prefer a path that works with the contours and blends in with the surroundings.

After a lingering stop at Lagavulin, I looked at the distillery longingly and blew it a kiss before moving on along the pathway. When I reached the Laphroaig Distillery, the home of the most popular Islay malt, I found that the next tour wasn’t for another couple of hours, which left me wondering what I should do. I wandered along the pathway towards Port Ellen until I reached MacGregor’s monument where I had my lunch, and eventually I decided that I would wait around for the tour regardless of what I’d previously planned and then I would decide what to do. First, to kill a bit of time I headed inland on a track that was signposted the Croft Walk, but I have no idea what that walk is. At the top of a rise I came off the road to my right to pass a Neolithic standing stone and up onto a low, craggy ridge. This is Druim nam Madagan that runs parallel to the coast while the reservoir behind it feeds the Laphroaig Distillery. Albeit brief I enjoyed this ridge as the outcrops and firm ground underfoot reminded me of walking in the Lake District.

Towards the coast I could clearly see the Laphroaig Distillery and that was where I headed onto a track that led me back onto the road not far from the entrance. The tour of Laphroaig was interesting even though they are heavily geared towards tourists as they malt some of the barley themselves which is something that is now done in only a couple of distilleries. At the end I was able to sample three of the Laphroaig whiskies and although they are not bad, they are not as rich as the whiskies I prefer. At the end of the tour I resumed my walk along the Three Distilleries Pathway on the tarmac lane all the way into Port Ellen. Of course, this walk was just an excuse to visit the whisky distilleries, especially Lagavulin, but while I visited all three I only actually did the tour around two of them. They are two very different distilleries, also two very different tasting whiskies, and although the only walk that I enjoyed on this day was that short ridge overlooking Laphroaig, it was the whiskies that brought me to Islay.

Port Charlotte

Monday 17th April 2017

After the rain that I had endured the day before this walk, it was a little frustrating for me to wake up to clear weather on a day when I was going to spend the greater part travelling to the Isle of Islay. The first bus from Inveraray, where I had spent the weekend, wasn’t until eleven a.m. so I wandered around the town while the weather gradually improved until by the time the bus left Inveraray the sun had finally come out to reveal a day of gorgeous weather. This was rather annoying when I was stuck on a bus and later on a ferry, but if you plan a holiday in Britain, months in advance, you are gambling on the weather being good on the days you want. This time I was unlucky. When I arrived at the Kennacraig Ferry Terminal, the boat was waiting for me and I immediately had that thrill of going overseas even if it was only on a two hour ferry journey. It reminded me of going to the Outer Hebrides two years ago and made me want to return to that wind-swept chain of islands.

On arriving at Port Askaig on the Isle of Islay I caught the bus across the island to the far side of Loch Indaal arriving at the Port Charlotte Youth Hostel at four o’clock. With an hour to kill before the hostel opened I took advantage of the good weather and wandered north up the coast beside the loch. It was great to be hopping around on the rocks beside the sea in the bright sunshine while across the bay the town of Bowmore could be seen in front of the low hills of east Islay, but the hills that were dominating the view were not on Islay. The Paps of Jura, on the neighbouring island, towered over everything on Islay and constantly drew my eye and tempting the foot to climb, beckoning to me. Slowly I made my way up the coast and around the lighthouse on Rubh’ an Dùin until eventually I decided that it would be foolhardy for me to attempt to walk all the way up the coast to Bruichladdich.

Climbing up to the road I returned to Port Charlotte where I visited the village store to get something for dinner before going back to the youth hostel where I could sign in. Since the weather was so good I came back out of the hostel to try to make the most of it and to attempt to follow a walk in a leaflet produced by Footprint. This describes eight walks on the Isles of Islay, Jura & Colonsay, and one of them is entitled ‘Port Charlotte, Islay’. Starting from the hostel I set off back along the road to the point where I had joined it after walking up the coast earlier, beside the house, Tigh na-Greine. Turning inland I headed up a lane that was delightfully lined with celandines and primroses until, just after a house marked on the Footprint map as Lorgbaw, I turned left off the lane.

The views behind me over Loch Indaal continued to be spectacular, but my mind was now drawn to the confusing map that didn’t seem to match what I was seeing on the ground. The directions mention the remains of Lorgbaw, but the house I had just passed did not look ruined and the hill that it wanted me to cross was a ploughed field. Following the field boundary, rather than walking across the field, I came to the point where there should have been a stile, ‘at a fence/wall junction’. As I made my way beside the fence looking for the right point to cross, I wished that I’d put my gaiters on as the ground was very boggy underfoot. Eventually I crossed a gate into an undeveloped field that was even boggier than the previous field as I slowly made my way uphill towards the top of Octomore Hill.

I couldn’t say that I was enjoying this walk so far as the ground was horrendously boggy, there was no path anywhere and the stiles that were marked on the map were nowhere to be found. It is possible that there have been some changes in this area since this guidebook was printed, but I had no confidence in its quality. At the top of Octomore Hill the views over Port Charlotte and across Loch Indaal were just as good, if not better and certainly more extensive, than they had been from the shore. As I made my way slowly down the southern slopes the ground became even boggier so that by the time I reached the Abhuinn (sic) Gearach the bottom half of my trousers were soaked. I was a relieved to finally reach the Kilchiaran road where an easy descent brought me back into Port Charlotte.

It was frustrating that the best weather of the whole week should have been when I was unable to make the most of it, but once I did eventually reach Port Charlotte I tried to enjoy the weather as much as I could even though the walk I did was horribly wet underfoot. The highlight of this day were the views I had of the Paps of Jura, firstly from the ferry and then from Port Charlotte, much further away. The views were stunning and extensive as I could not only see across the whole of Islay and towards Jura, but also southwards I could also be see the coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Despite this good weather being short-lived, it was great to experience it on a magical island that I had only just arrived on and where I would now spend the next three days. I could hardly wait.