Isles of Islay and Jura Holiday

Back at the end of October 2023 we spent a week on Islay (pronounced eye-lah) and did a day trip to Jura too. Islay is the southern most island in the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland. Jura is its neighbour, with a very short ferry crossing.

Islay is famous for its many (9) whisky distilleries, it’s the 5th largest Scottish island, but a week was plenty to visit all of the distilleries and sights we wanted to see. Neither of us like whisky so whilst we visited all the distilleries we didn’t sample any whisky. They also have gin and rum distilleries too!

Cottage and walks from it

We stayed in a holiday cottage in Kilnaughton Bay, with views across to Loch Ellen. A lovely cottage and fabulous views.

If you have no interest in the distilleries, and viewing online not email, click here to skip that section.

Whisky Distilleries

We went to all 9 of the open distilleries, even if it was just pulling into the car park and one of us having a look in the gift shop. Most were dog friendly in the shops and we were able to have lunch in the restaurant (with the dog) at Kilchoman.

I’ve put pronunciations but if you want to hear them said, here’s a playlist of actor Brian Cox saying some of them (and others). Remember to come back 😃.

1. Caol Ila pronounced Cull-Eela. The Islay home to Johnnie Walker whisky. Lots of steps so I stayed with our old dog whilst my husband went in.
2. Ardnahoe pronounced Ard-na-ho. A lovely gift shop, I bought a bag from there. Cafe wasn’t dog friendly, but maybe in summer they have tables outside.
3. Bunnahabhain pronounced Bunn-na-ha-venn. Right on the waterfront, with a gift shop/tasting room separate to the distillery building.
4. Laphroaig pronounced La-froyg. To me it seems the most famous whisky on the island, but perhaps that’s because the pub I worked at in the 90s served it.
5. Lagavulin (clip to actor Brian Cox) dog friendly bar we had a hot drink in. I forgot to photograph the distillery but my husband had photographed a bottle for his whisky collecting friend.
6. Ardbeg pronounced Ard-beg. In the summer season they have outside tables you can eat at with the dog, but not out of season when we went which was disappointing.
7. Bowmore pronounced bow-more (bow as in bow & arrow). We passed this a dozen times but I can’t find a photo we took!
8. Bruichladdich pronounced Brook-Laddy.
9. Kilchoman pronounced kil-ho-man or kil-cHO-man. Clip to other pronunciations. Last but definitely not least and annoyingly I can’t seem to find a photo of it. It was my favourite, the gift shop was the nicest, it was the only one with a dog friendly restaurant we had lunch at, the whisky is made from barley they grow themselves. They were also giving away empty bottles for use in craft projects, so I’ve shown that instead with one of my earliest felted lampshades*

There’s another distillery, Port Ellen, which has been closed for 4 decades but is going to re-open.

We didn’t look into the gin distilleries but know that Botanist Gin is made on Islay.

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Other sites

We toured around in the car and did see some other sites, not just distilleries.

Kildalton Cross a 1,200 year old cross.

Finlaggan/Lord of the Isles, this photo is a little disappointing but the history of the place is interesting about the inauguration of the lords of the isles, started on these islands in a loch on an island! The visitor centre was closed for winter.

An old phone box has been converted into a little craft shop which works on an honesty box, tea towels, postcards etc.

It was blowing a hoolie, cold and wet when we went to the American Monument so my photo is actually a snap taken from a video I sent some American friends. It’s a slight bump in the hill we were so far away. It’s an RSPB site and walk.

Portnahaven and Port Wemyss were pretty to drive to and the Islay Celtic Craft shop was open although nothing took my fancy.

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We birdwatched at Loch Gruinart. I bought yarn and jam or was it chutney (?) from Tormisdale Croft Crafts.

We had lunches out at a few dog friendly places; Ballygrant Inn, Little Charlotte’s Cafe in Port Ellen and as mentioned before the Kilchoman distillery. I think in “tourist season” we could have eaten outside in more places and there were some other dog friendly places we didn’t get to. Overall it’s a pretty dog friendly island.

We also bought a hot drink and cake from the Islay Oyster Shed, which we had in the car as it’s not dog friendly, but just over the road is a great place to bird watch. In Port Ellen there was a little mobile food unit selling cakes, savoury pastries and hot drinks we went to a couple of times.

Day trip to Jura

On one of the days we went across to Jura on the ferry. We stopped at the Deer Island Rum Distillers, they soak sultanas (I think in America these are called golden raisins) and spices in rum. It tastes like Christmas cake. You can even buy bags of the previously soaked sultanas. We bought a bottle of their spiced rum and a coffee rum. The spiced one was so nice we bought a 2nd bottle we found being sold in a shop on Islay.

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We really enjoyed the holiday. In comparing the Inner Hebrides that we have visited so far, personally Islay would rank lower than Skye, Mull and Iona. Jura is reminiscent of Raasay and I slightly preferred to Islay. The Outer Hebrides are still my favourite Scottish isles so far.

I’ve added a video. This is a collection of video chat messages I’d sent to friends that I’ve combined into one.  The app uses portrait mode and the quality is lower but it still may be of interest if you want to check it out.

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*if you’d like to find out more about my lampshades please click here