Wiped from jetlag and lack of sleep, actually slept until 8:00 this
morning, which was unfortunate given that we needed to be on the road by
8:15 to make the ferry to the Isle of Arran.
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| Isle of Arran |
We scrambled and got out on the road (drive on the left, drive on the
left, drive on the left) by 8:20.
Prepaid check-in time was 9:15 (ferry was to leave at 9:45)and the Scots
are serious about arriving ON TIME. We
got there at 9:25 and, despite having booked and paid in advance we were
directed to the non-pre-paid line,
which ran us the risk of not getting on the ferry. Lesson learned. Fortunately there was adequate space and we
got on with a "wee " bit o' room to spare . . . but just a wee bit.
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| Colorful Coast of Arran |
An hour ride, ending with a delicate rainbow over the island portending good things to come, and we
arrived to the Isle of Arran, know as "Scotland in miniature" because
it has all the topographical features of Scotland (mountains, coast, glens
(valleys), agricultural land) rolled into one neat package of a little island We thought this would be a perfect way to reintorduce us to the beauty of Scotland and help us find our
photogpraher's eye, though admittedly, Rick spent more time focusing on the
narrow road than the surveying the surrounding landscape.
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| Happy Sheep - Kintyre Isle in the Back |
Arran (pronounced more like "Ireland" without the "L" and "D")
did not disappoint. The initial part of
the drive took us along the colorful coast past sheep contentedly grazing on
green pastures next to the see. We were fortunate enough
to see some seals basking on the rocks in the sun. Yes there is sun here. Learned that in the past five weeks there has
been only one day of rain; the rest have been sunny.
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| And the Angels Rejoiced |
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| Billy Making the Mash |
We weren't driving just for landscapes.
We had a goal in mind, the Arran distillery, the most recent distillery to open in Scotland (in 1995) and the only one on the island
though historically there were up to 30 distilleries. Arran hasn't had its own distillery since
1836. The distillery touts the purity of
Arran water as contributing to such fine whiskey. They also are very proud of the fact that
during the construction they had to close down for a few weeks until some young
golden eagles, nesting in the cliffs above the distillery, had fledged. One of the eagles actually graced us with a
view during our tour. Billy our tour
guide complete with kilt and rich Scottish brogue, gave us a great tour
including historical tidbits including techniques the islanders used to prevent
the gougers (taxman) from coming over from the mainland and confiscating the
whiskey.
For being so young, they have many different whiskies, some cask strength (oi
- pretty strong) and others finished in amarone, sauternes, and port
barrels. Rick and I found that we liked
the quarter cask (where the whiskey is matured in smaller barrels so that it
has more contact with wood) and purchased a bottle.
Afterwards we had a little time before we needed to catch the ferry back to
the mainland so we headed inland to the mountains for some good views of the
island. Got to the top of pass and yes,
oh yes, here is the Scotland that I was looking forward to seeing again. Heather, huge land forms, and beautiful
streams (called burns). Wished we could
have stayed longer but we'll just add it to the list of things to do next time.
Remainder of the day was uneventful
. . . except for us attempting to enter a round-about the wrong way on a
busy street. Yikes! Drive on the left, drive on the left, drive
on the left. We had an unremarkable
dinner (need to just stick to fish-n-chips and whiskey in Glasgow) and the
returned to the pub we visited the previous night "Pot and Still" for a bit of people watching , some good whiskey, and being called "luv" by
the bartenders.
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| Pot and Still - Where no one knows your name. They just call you "Luv". Photo by R. Dunn |
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