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Dad's 70th next month, he like Whisky, I like Whisky.
We don't see that much of each other now due to living at different ends of the country. Thought for his 70th we could do a Father & Son road trip to a few distilleries.
Anybody got any suggestions / recommendations for tours / accommodation?
2 southern distilleries near here - Good accomodation. Once you've seen one distillation process you've seen them all. Advice on other activities available. http://lomondguides.co.uk/
Thinking Islay
I did islay a few years back it was great. Got train to Glasgow then bus to ferry and got a bandb in Bowmore and went to local bar met a Bowmore rep and got destroyed with him 😉
Did tour of Bowmore in the morning travelled down to the south and dropped bags at new b and b then went to Ardbeg they had a problem with one of the stills so cancelled the tour and took us to the boardroom to again get wasted. That night in the pub was taken to a locals house who worked at bruichladdich for a party
Next morning went to Lagavulin followed by Laphroaig. the guy doing the tour loved Yorkshire and thought fire fighters were great so gave us far too much to drink the lady in the shop drove us to the bandb after Laphroaig shut as we were too gone to walk 😉 then on to pub again
A great trip but it was hard work lol
I won a Malt Master Tour at Glengoyne and it was a fantastic day out. Most interesting distillery tour I have been on with really knowledgeable guide followed by tasting, blending and drinking. Lots of drinking. Came away with a fantastic personalised bottle of whisky that I mixed with my favorite malts from Glengoyne. A brilliant keepsake that almost made the hangover worthwhile.
It is only £55 and I reckon I drunk about £54 worth of whisky, so excellent value. Can't recommend it highly enough.
[url= 
]Malt Master[/url]
And if you need any more convincing...
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(as a non whisky liker) Islay was fab, most chilled animals ever(cows paddling and sunbathing, sheep sunbathing on the edge of the road whilst you drive by) also got waved to by most locals (was in motorhome).
Special mention for Port Charlotte Hotel (free live music), as non residents (we stayed at campsite up road), we heard the host explaining whisky to some American guest, so he then ran through it with us as well and suggested one we might like[ and he knew lots] - could not have been more helpful.
You can also pop over to Jura as there is a distillery there as well.
Maybe not in winter but hire a motorhome ? - do Islay and Jura
Cheers caps sounds like Islay may be the road trip to do
Thinking Islay
Is pretty obvious. It's a great place, getting there is part of the fun - ferry from Kennacraig with car is not stupidly expensive ad drive to it is lovely as long as you're not ina hurry
Or Speyside for a phenomenal number of distilleries all within a short distance of each other.
Both Speyside and Islay are really nice places with non-whisky stuff as well. The choice would be with which style of whisky you prefer, either way, you should have fun.
BTW if it is whisky and you have transport, you should visit Kilchoman. Only been going about 10 years, but run the whole process from start to finish including growing and malting their own barley. On a converted farm, visiting it is like finding a bootleggers still.
EDUT - sign up to Friends of the Classic Malts and get free distillery tours and £3 off a bottle (Cail Ila and Lagavulin on Islay, Cardhu and Cragganmore on Speyside)
Islay would be obvious choice. Can fit in trip to Campbeltown if you can, too.
Alternatively, if you can do by bus/train rather than drive, Speyside as above would give you access to loads - in and around Forres, Dalwhinnie, Elgin, Keith among others. Pitlochry and Blair Atholl too.
Speyside also has a Cooperage and a Whisky Museum in Dufftown with a wee trainline to Keith. Dufftown also has 5/6 distilleries within walking distance and evening tastings in one of the B&Bs.
if you're heading to Scotland via the M6 a stop off at the Lakes Distillery is worth the detour.
You can also pop over to Jura as there is a distillery there as well.
Try and time that for when Richard Paterson is around. He's a stone cold legend and well worth spending some time in the company of.
As a side note, I got a bottle of Penderyn (Welsh whisky) for my birthday. I would love to visit that distillery to discovery just how they manage to make it taste so bloody awful.
just thought - for a sarfener version
Maybole/Kirkoswald then Lochranza
(*ps I am not a whisky drinker) but Maybole is near where I used to live and Arran is fantastic
Dufftown also has 5/6 distilleries within walking distance
as they say locally - "Rome might have been built on 7 hills, but Dufftown's built on 7 stills"
[url= http://www.strathspeyrailway.co.uk/ ]Speyside stream train[/url] does some kind of whisky-related carry on as well. no idea what it is, but involves whisky and steam trains so a big bucket of win for me.