Day Three: Islays West Coast

Today is the only day not scheduled with an early morning appointment with a ferry. With this comforting knowledge we remain in our bunks while the less fortunate with their noisy children vacate their rooms and communal dining area. Getting out of bed and performing morning ablutions in such a small area requires strategic planning and foresight or collision is inevitable. With military precision we time our assaults on the bathroom to the second ensuring that one of us is solo in the room to dress without the chance of accidently injuring himself/herself against a nearby partitioned wall.

Breakfast complete we mount our bikes and revel in the lightweight of our chariots minus the panniers. Pressing on to Islay’s Atlantic coast we turn left after Bruichladdich on to the B8016 to our first stop at Scotland’s most westerly distillery. The distillery is situated on the western side of Islay, near the small town of Kilchoman. The distillery began production in June 2005 and was the first to be built on the island of Islay in 124 years. The distillery uses barley grown on site at Rockside Farm and malted at the distillery. The converted farm cum distillery houses an impressive visitor centre and diner where Emma samples her first Cullen Skink (a thick Scottish soup made of smoked haddock, potatoes and onions).

A couple of miles west of the distillery lies some of Islay's most beautiful coastal scenery, namely Machir and Saligo Bay. The road to the coast takes us to the top of a little hill where we get magnificent views over Loch Indaal and Loch Gruinart with the mountains of Mull in the distance. Following a rough single track road downhill we reach Machir Bay. The wind and light conditions on the beach are relentless in their diversity and we spend a happy hour absorbing its many mood swings.

Three miles to the north of Machir Bay lies Saligo Bay. The bay is accessible through a gate west of Loch Gorm. Passing an old military bunker we cross dunes riddled with numerous rabbit holes and descend to reach the breathtaking beach. Saligo Bay offers one of the most beautiful light conditions according to some photographers and is a favorite spot for people to watch and photograph an Atlantic Sunset. From this point 3000 miles due west is the coast line of North America and only water in between.

On our return to Port Charlotte we stop to capture an old red phone box situated miles from any form of civilization. Bizarrely we find that the phone box only accepts credit cards as payment, we ponder over the anger that must rise within an individual who, having traveled 5 miles to access this box finds that he/she has left his/her credit card at home. Has BT forgotten about this lonely box or has Ofcom forced them to keep alive a local emergency lifeline? We strongly suspect the latter.

Part of our holiday plan is to reward ourselves each evening with a gourmet meal followed by a rich dessert. Accommodation and transport around the Islands has been pre-paid and frugal in its conception. To compensate for our frugality we aim to enjoy the best that each stopover has to offer in the way of culinary delights. Tonight we bypass the overpriced and overrated Port Charlotte Hotel and wander along the main street to the towns other eatery The Lochindaal Hotel.

As mentioned in our Trip Advisor review this place badly needs some TLC. Too many, this is the sort of establishment that you would walk in to and walk straight out of i.e. stained covered carpet, nicotine walls, windowless toilet, dirty upholstery and a token drunk at the end of the bar. As we enter the premises and assess the surroundings the drunk at the end of the bar offers us a cheery welcome and then proceeds to step behind the bar and serve us a drink. He informs us that the Landlord is busy as he quickly pours our drinks and introduces himself. My gawd what have we stepped in to here we wonder! A bottle of Red Eye poured liberally from the bartenders hand accompanied by a piano player playing an out of tune honky-tonk piano would not be out of place in this saloon!

As the landlord returns and we settle down with our drinks we find the welcome from our hosts to be genuine and informative. On enquiring about some food the landlord informs us that this is the chef’s night off: but not too worry as he will put us something together should we wish. This kindly gesture results in the drunk resuming his title of temporary barman as other locals enter the bar and introduce themselves. As the night proceeds we find that many of the locals work in the Bruichladdich distillery and are not averse to sampling its produce thus providing us with anecdotes and hospitality that its expensive rival would bottle and sell if they knew the ingredients.

Amongst the many nuggets of information passed on to us by the locals is the news of gale warnings threatening to hit Islay’s shores the following morning. Returning to the hostel through the white streets we hope the forecasters have got it wrong as any possible disruption of the Wednesday ferry to Oban will result in the remainder of the holiday being abandoned.