Isle of Islay – 2

Three of the most famous distilleries are close by and there is a footpath from Port Ellen to Ardbeg via Laphroaig and Lagavulin. I passed by a site where another new distillery is being built along with homes for the distillery workers to live in. Affordable accommodation is in short supply on the island, so any advantage that an employer can add for potential employees will be beneficial to that employer. 

Laphroaig means ‘The beautiful hollow by the broad bay’. The white buildings are right by the water with the giant letters of the distillery appearing on the side of a vast warehouse. Lagavulin is next, the name an anglicized version of the Scots Gaelic phrase Lag a’ Mhuilinn, which translates to “the hollow of the mill”. Again there are lovely views of the whole of the distillery from the seashore. The name Ardbeg is an anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic An Àird Bheag, meaning ‘the small promontory’. The car park has a shiny still in the middle of it. There’s an amusing signpost outside on the road with the distance to the nearest supernova provided for any intergalactic travellers passing through. Even an arctic tern would consider it a long way. The Kildalton Cross is five miles further along the road towards Ardtalla. This eighth-century cross is one of Scotland’s most important early-Christian monuments. I didn’t see this cross myself as I was told that walkers had to use the narrow road in places to get there. I decided against seeing it as I had plans to catch the bus to Bowmore from outside the Ardbeg distillery.

As the bus heads through Port Ellen northwards towards the airport and Bowmore, to the left is the rounded peninsula called The Oa. Minor roads head to the RSPB reserve and towards the American Memorial that commemorates the sinking of two ships off the coast. Near the end of WWI, two troop ships foundered off Islay within a few months of each other. The SS Tuscania,  a converted British liner carrying American troops to France, was torpedoed on 5th February 1918 with the loss of over 160 lives. On 6th October 1918 HMS Otranto was involved in a collision with HMS Kashmir in heavy seas. Otranto lost steering. Answering her SOS the destroyer HMS Mounsey came alongside and rescued over 350 men, but Otranto was wrecked on the shore with a total loss of 431 lives. Like Tuscania, Otranto was carrying American troops to France.