day three

(the view from kildalton)

we woke up on friday 25 may to wonderful blue skies with marshmallow clouds and a stonkingly good breakfast cooked up by mari. ronnie was there to take our order in tartan pants and a glaswegian twinkle in his eye. after finishing our hearty breakfast and befriending our fellow guests at the b&b, we headed off for some whisky and sightseeing.

(the ruins at kildalton...for pics of the cross see davoud's flickr page)

we started out on our first day heading down towards port ellen and our favourite distilleries. it was an experience driving past ardbeg and lagavulin (two of the best in our opinion) and being in awe at how such small buildings on such a small island produce such goodness. we stopped at kildalton home to an 8th century celtic cross and the ruins of a chapel. it was a beautiful spot and we spotted a few deer wandering nearby. after a few pictures, we drove back to ardbeg for our first distillery tour. ardbeg is perfectly situated and has recently had quite a bit of money thrown its way thanks to its previous owners glenmorangie. it is now owned by the same group who own moet and hennessey. the tasting of whiskies that we'd admittedly tried before was great! it certainly tastes better at the distillery and i was just asked to pass a couple bottles of the shelf to our guide to pour from.
(my comment in the lagavulin visitors book. because everytime i now drink it, all i can hear in my head is jimmy saying "it's like a campfire in a glass!")

after a hearty lunch at the distillery, we drove down to lagavulin for our next tour. it was certainly a bit busier and i could immediately see that visits to the island for the whisky were made predominantly by men. it was my favourite distillery of all because it was even prettier than ardbeg and had a certain class and history about it. we were going to be going there the next day for a special tasting with the distillery manager on their open day, but it was really neat to be there with only a few people.
(two sheep that were definitely posing for his shot on our way to loch finlaggan)

we took a few photos further along so that davoud could get the "l" in his shot and then we went to loch finlaggan the seat of the ancient lord of the isles. extremely beautiful reminiscent of canada scenery that was so full of history.

after working up a hunger during our walk to the loch we sought food in port charlotte. although we didn't actually get a table at the preferred pub in town, we did get a spot at the local's local. it didn't have the greatest atmosphere, but the food was good.

i've eaten more meat in the past week than i have in the last year.