Day 13 -- Tuesday, the 8th July
Our breakfast is a continuation of last night's dinner. Ha! Ha!
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| Arran Cheddar Cheese with Arran Mustard |
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| With Orkney crackers, breakfast of champions |
We take advantage of not being on a scheduled breakfast to make an early start. Soon, we are driving through the east of beautiful North Uist.
Our first stop today is Barpa Langais. The weather is so-so, but we are not afraid. From the car park, it is a very brief walk to the burial place. It looks like a heap of stones, these days, and an unorderly one at that, following a collapsed roof, a while ago.
From there, we take a path through very boggy land to the top of the hill. Despite the bad weather, the view is calming and spectacular.
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| Is adc on the left or on the right? She is... ON BOTH SIDES! |
We go down on the other flank of the hill, down to a remarkable stone circle. A lovely place, really.
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| The stone circle is partially hidden by surrounding vegetation |
The path then goes through Langass Lodge gardens before returning to the car park via the road. It starts raining.
We then drive southwest to the next island: Benbecula. Completely incidentally (ahem), the first thing we see there is the distillery. Would be rude not to stop.
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| Because it is very beautiful, if nothing else |
We take the standard tour. It is a bit basic, and the staff is clearly learning -- one explicitly so; the other one makes up some answers as she goes (e.g. she claims a new still only has twenty years of life before it needs to be replaced). Ah! well. As a sidenote, the latter guide is imported, which makes me reflect on the intention to "create local employment" again.
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| The malt mill |
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| Washbacks |
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| Wash still |
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| Spirit safe |
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| Spirit still |
We try their new make, then their gin and a "while we wait" rum, as well as a "while we wait" whisky from Teaninich, which is very pleasant.
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| Rum, Whisky, Gin Only the gin is made here; the others are "while we wait" expressions |
We check out. I text DH, who suggested the visit, and let him know where we were. We move to Grimsay for lunch. While we are driving, DH calls. JS picks up. Some words are exchanged; she hangs up; another call: "The owner of the distillery awaits you at 14:30." That is dessert sorted, then!
But before that, lunch. At the east end of Grimsay is Namara, a fish café at the back of a hardware shop. Scotland is incredible like that.
There is a wait. We are unfazed. In less time than the waitress forecast, we are seated. In minutes, we are eating. It is one of the best meals of our holiday, just as I had anticipated.
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| Cheesy Chips |
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| Fried Scallop and black pudding roll (me) |
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| Fried Scallops with Stornoway Black Pudding (JS) |
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| Fried Scallops with Stornoway Black Pudding (adc) |
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| Someone offers Gaelic lessons for German, French, English, Dutch... ...and West-Vlaams speakers. Unexpected combination to say the least, especially here |
We still have some time before our appointment, and use that to stop at the Scandinavian Bakery for dessert. Lovely.
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| Olive oil & espresso choc chip cookie (top) Banana & oat choc chip cookie (bottom) Swedish black cocoa brownie cake with cream (Kladdkaka) |
Back at the distillery at 14:30, the staff is surprised to see us so soon. The silver-haired guy talking to a group of visitors is now asking others if they were sent by AMcD. "It is us," I tell him. Meet Angus MacMillan. He takes us to the same tasting room we were in this morning, under the nose of the ladies who gave us the tour earlier, and who seem mightily puzzled. Ha! Ha!
The "tasting" is rather an informal chat with drinks (provided by yours, truly). We have Poit Dhubh 30yo b.2006 (43%, Pràban na Linne 30th Anniversary Edition, b#230), 163.1 6yo 2018/2024 Smokin'! (58.1%, SMWS Society Cask, 1st Fill ex-Bourbon Barrel, 240b), which AMcM does not like at all, and Tormore 29yo 1984/2013 (53.9%, www.whiskybroker.co.uk, Barrel, C#3674, 107b, b#87). We skip a Caol Ila 35yo 1984/2020 (47.5%, The House of Macduff The Golden Cask Reserve, C#CM260, 204b, b#128), as AMcM tells us he is not really a peat enthusiast. Since Benbecula's spirit is peated, that leaves me perplexed; he explains market research showed that a peaty spirit would be more successful, so he opted for that over his personal preference. Whether it is right or wrong is neither here nor there; one has to salute his openness about it, though.
After around an hour, we leave the distillery (and text DH and AMcD to thank them for orchestrating this shindig).
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| Lots of memorabilia from the SS Politician on display Read about it here |
We traverse the rest of Benbecula and whizz through South Uist. It seems a lot milder than the islands to the north and appears to offer fewer things to do. Since it is raining, it is fine by us.
There are so many cyclists on the way it is hard to believe. We joke that the road may seem easy to them, and that they are in for a nasty surprise in the islands north of Berneray.
We stop at Co-Op for supplies. Astonishingly, they have a single-cask Miltonduff bottled by Gordon & MacPhail.
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| Also, this piece of marketing genius |
We check into our accommodation, meet the host who will randomly appear like a jack-in-a-box for the next couple of hours, enjoy cheese and crackers, and switch the telly on, I am ashamed to say.
We switch from The Madness of King George to Deadliest Catch according to the commercials (which are annoyingly synchronised). At some point, the A-Team comes up on another channel and we have a winner. It is S3.E17 Skins. Lastly, Springwatch clears up all negative thoughts in time for an early night. It is difficult to not see our time on South Uist as wasted, but it is what it is.
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| At least, the nougat gives us a sweet moment |
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