The Speyside region. A region not really designated by natural boundaries, or clan ownership claims, but roughly defined by having access to the water coming from or flowing into the river Spey. Home to roughly 50 distilleries in the mid-east of the Highlands between Inverness and Aberdeen, hugging the North Sea coast. In the triangle…
Category: scotland
Entering Speyside
“Falling Down a Mountain” turns out to be a cafe with coffee brewed from freshly ground beans and the best homemade carrot cake we have had on this trip. Well worth the one mile detour before turning our heels and driving the mile back on General Wade’s Military Road to cross the river Spey for…
West is Best!
Our adventures on Islay had ended and the mainland could not be more welcoming. We were treated to the smoothest ferry crossing ever, which means we arrived perfectly on time of the Calmac time schedule. Having boarded the second car and disembarking in that same order, a strange feeling came over us; we kind of…
Islay Farewell: Seafood Feasts, Ferry Chases & FOMO Frenzy!
We bade farewell to Bruichladdich for one last time on this trip and decided to take the remainder of the day off, do some reading in the sunshine and go out for dinner at the Balaclava Byre, not 5 minutes from the Little House, just outside of Port Ellen going North. We had been on…
Islay Sunset Symphony
After having said our ‘see you tomorrows’ to our turquoise friends, we drove to Port Ellen to get a cup of tea at the Port Ellen hotel bar, who had opened their gardens for the lovely afternoon. The hotel was purchased by LVMH in 2022 and will be completely overhauled in 2024, after Feis Ile….
Intermezzo – homeless on Islay
Having been a whole week on Islay and having rediscovered that ‘slowing down’ comes in steps, we had left our dwelling in the smallest of the Bowmore cottages, and found ourselves homeless for the next couple of hours. When we are on Islay, the weather is always great, even when it is raining horizontally and…
Islay Shenanigans: nature calling
Still bewildered with the rather impressive beauty of such a tiny beach, with the wind pretty much as calm as the wind can get on Islay and the sun almost on its highest point of the day, we put our sunglasses on, rolled down the windows and meandered back up towards Port Charlotte and decided…
Islay adventures: Seals, sheep, and a tropical surprise!
Having done some distillery bagging and a walk on the beach to Billie’s Bench in Bowmore, we headed back to Bowmore and decided to do a late take-out from the local Chinese and collect our thoughts about the eventful day with our legs up on the coffee table for the remainder of the evening. Next…
Everything, everywhere All at Once
Okay. Slow down a bit. We were now only a couple of days on the Island and had to force ourselves not to do everything, everywhere all at once*, and deliberately tried to stay on the North end of Islay, with the smallest of the Bowmore Cottages as our place of rest and the most…
Islay adventures: dodging potholes & distillery discoveries!
The cons of the single track roads is that the driver is ever on the lookout for potholes, passing places – which seem an incomprehensible idea for some of the non-locals who blankly try to win a staring contest trying to force you to back up to a passing place, while they themselves are still…
The Sound of Islay
Oh, hello! Is it another day already? We thought we were on Islay time? Normally, we would have said it slows down a bit, but it seems to have caught up with mainland time over the years. Shame! Anyway, While we want to explore the Island and not only go on another distillery hopping spree,…
Islay Calling!
Islay, Queen of the Hebrides. While we were planning the trip back in September 2023, we were checking to go to Skye, drive the NC500, do some exploring of cities and villages we had never visited and do some sightseeing of waterfalls, ruins, large standing stones and whatnot. For some reason though, we kept looking…
WhiskySpeller 