#Oban distillery to isle of jura full#

This is ScotlandвЂ™s most famous whisky island, home to the greatest concentration of first-class distilleries in the world. ItвЂ™s a five-hour ferry journey, via the isle of Colonsay, to get from Oban to Islay. As long as this ritual was performed before any other creature had woken, her youth would be restored. Every hundred years at dawn, she would immerse herself in the life-giving waters of the misty loch. And thereвЂ™s also Loch Ba, allegedly home to the Cailleach Bheur вЂ“ one of ScotlandвЂ™s most powerful witches. She was not in evidence when the famed English dictionary compiler Dr Johnson came to marvel in 1773. Then there is MacKinnonвЂ™s Cave, the deepest sea cave in the Hebrides where a female ogre is said to have lived. Away from the coast rises the Bronze Age Lochbuie Stone Circle with eight of its original nine granite stones still standing in the grounds of Lochbuie House.

#Oban distillery to isle of jura full#

ItвЂ™s known for its wildlife such as otters, long-haired Highland cattle and Atlantic grey seals, but itвЂ™s also famed as an island full of myths and legends. Mull is the second-biggest island of the Inner Hebrides after Skye. The distillery also produces a gin that uses juniper, tea, heather, elderflower and sweet orange peel among its botanicals it won the title of ScotlandвЂ™s best вЂњclassic ginвЂќ at the World Gin Awards 2020. The Ledaig is smoky and robust while the Tobermory is fruity and unpeated.

It was established here in 1798 as the Ledaig Distillery and today produces two single malts. The ancient, white-washed Tobermory distillery stands on the harbour, tucked away behind MacGochanвЂ™s Bar. Here the gaudily painted harbourfront at Tobermory dazzles by contrast with the mainland. The nearest major Hebridean island to the west of grey, granitic Oban is Mull. The distilleryвЂ™s popular limited edition вЂњOban Little BayвЂќ is aged in small oak casks for maximum smoothness. Its copper stills are rested between batches, thereby allowing more contact between the spirit and the metal, which enriches the resulting flavour. Oban is proud of the fact that it is one of ScotlandвЂ™s oldest, smallest and slowest distilleries. People come here for the distillery (now owned by multinational alcohol company Diageo), but Oban is also an important ferry port, acting as the hub for Caledonian MacBrayne ferries to the islands of the Inner and Outer Hebrides. The Lord of the Isles subsequently encouraged many people to visit Oban and, since the 1950s, its principal industry has indeed been tourism. In 1814, the author Sir Walter Scott visited the area and published a long poem about Robert the BruceвЂ™s adventures along this coastline. Lagavulin, one of nine working distilleries on the Isle of Islay. More than 200 years later Oban single malt is still made from water that flows from a loch three miles inland, using barley brought in from Speyside. Its silhouette resembles the Colosseum in Rome, Italy.Дown below, close to the port stands ObanвЂ™s Distillery, a blunt stone building founded in 1794 by the brothers Hugh and John Stevenson. Up on its topmost point rears McCaigвЂ™s Tower, the outer wall of an incomplete 19th-century museum designed by the philanthropist John Stuart McCaig to give work to local stonemasons. This west coast town is a quiet yet visually dramatic port, especially if approached from the sea on one of the ferries that ply between the islands.

With regular ferry services operating along the coastline, itвЂ™s possible to island-hop for a week and find yourself at a different distillery each day.Д®ven if youвЂ™re the designated driver, thereвЂ™s still plenty to see and enjoy on these islands and all along the Whisky Coast. On its dark, bare islands and along its fertile green shorelines stand some of the most famous distilleries in Britain, which means some of the best whisky in the world is produced here. The west of Scotland is known as the вЂњWhisky CoastвЂќ вЂ“ and with good reason. ScotlandвЂ™s west coast is home to the worldвЂ™s finest whisky distilleries and the surrounding landscape is every bit as refreshing as the drinks themselves, says Adrian Mourby