Arran and Islay
The Isle of Arran has a lot to offer. It's considerd Scotland in miniature because it has mountains and lochs to the north, and rolling hills to the south.
To ward off the cold of the rainy day, we had lunch at the South Bank Farm tearoom. Afterwards we toured the farm and were treated to a sheepdog demonstration. Alas, I have just read that at the end of October 2004, the farm closed their gates, so we were lucky to have met the people and visited the farm.
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We stayed in Lochranza, in the northern part of the island. We visited and toured the Arran distillery. The visitor centre manager highly recommended the Brodick Bar for dinner and we were not disappointed with the daily menu consisting of local and regional fresh vegetables and meats. It was probably the best meal of our trip.
In Brodick, we also enjoyed locally produced cheese at Torrylinn Creamery and chocolates at James's Chocolates and visited the Arran Aromatics, which has soaps and scents produced on the isle.
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Next we headed to the Isle of Islay to visit the seven working distilleries - Tom's favorite part of the trip, since we came home with well over the allotted duty-free amount. See a map and descriptions of the distilleries at the Islay Whiskey Society site.
Bruichladdich warrants extra mention because Tom had the good fortune to meet and chat with Jim McEwan at the Whiskies of the World Expo. He was on holiday when we visited, but we were taken on a special tour by bottling manager, David, in addition to the regular tour. In 2004, Bruichladdich began the The Academy which allows guests to participate in distillery processes. In 2005, Tom will be a student at The Academy.
There is more than just distilleries on the island. We also visited the Islay Woolen Mill, (where we got to meet the owner's dog and puppy - to Patty's delight) and received a brief tour. We also visited Elizabeth Sykes gallery of batik art.
We stayed at a very nice hotel in Bowmore, where we had 5 star meals. We highly recommend The Harbour House Inn Hotel.
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