Islay Opening Up for Tourists Today
2 years ago
Thursday, January 14, 2010
2010 Feis Ile
Booked the ferry passage (Caledonian MacBrayne) from Kennacraig to Port Ellen for 22nd-May. This was done because we plan to take a car with us to the island rather than hire one at the location. Rather dear $$$ to do that though; still, the auto will be useful on the mainland and we are looking forward to site-seeing during the drive from Glasgow to the terminal. We will leave Islay from Port Askaig, so we can see a wee bit of the Sound of Islay, on the 29th May. After we depart Islay on the 29th we hope to spend a few days retracing my footsteps from 2009 Hogmany/2010 New Year. Still, much planning remains to be done for the 2010 Feis Ile journey.
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That was the right choice bringing your own car across to Islay for Feis Ile. You'll need the trunk room for all the bottles and whisky swag you'll be hauling back from paradise!
ReplyDeleteThe car rental situation is sometimes pretty grim during Feis Ile due to the massive crowds and when we were there in 2002 one fellow who rented a car on the island missed almost 2 full days of the festival when his first car broke down on day 3 and then his replacement broke down on day 5. They didn't have any other replacements and he ended up bumming rides for the rest of the week. We tried to be sympathetic but were having too much fun with peaty malt whisky to understand his pain.
Back on the mainland, take a trip down the Kintyre peninsula to Campbeltown and visit Springbank, Eaglesomes and the Ard Sheil if you have time. This is a beautiful seaside trip maybe 45 minutes - an hour south of Kennacraig. If you can spend the night book a room at the Ard Sheil since you'll probably end up camping out in that bar/restaurant anyway. They have a palm tree in the front yard that seems out of place until you've had a few drams. In 2005 they were also serving haggis nuggets in the hotel restaurant that one of my travelling companions insisted on having for every meal we ate there.
You'll have a great time! Wish we were going back this year.
DrE