After doing our laundry at Davaar Laundrette, we headed out to the two distilleries in Campbeltown for tours. We weren't allowed to take photos in Glen Scotia; however, our guide was fun and knowledgable and we had a great time learning about Campbeltown whisky. At one time there were 37 distilleries in Campbeltown. This of course does not count the "illegal" distilling which was also going on all over the area as well.
Next up was Springbank Distillery. I wasn't certain anything could top the Glen Scotia tour, but I was wrong. The really cool thing was they had no problems letting us take photos anywhere we wanted of anything we wanted.
Springbank is Blue's favorite whisky, the one he would take to a deserted island with him. This was a Red Letter Day!
Springbank starts the process by malting ALL of its barley. Typically distilleries contract malting houses to malt barley to their specifications; Springbank does this themselves. Then they dry the barley, peating it as needed for their peated brew. This is why they produce so much less than others, and why it can be challenging to find their whisky to purchase.
We were allowed into one of the bonded dunnage houses. Above are casks in various stages of aging, in various types of casks. The master of the dunnage knows exactly where each and every barrel is - at least that's what they say.
We had hoped to do some shopping in town after the tours, but they ran long, and we ran out of time. We only had time to walk down a couple of streets. Here is a lovely scene of produce and plants outside a store.
Low tide was at 6:00 pm tonight so we made plans to walk out to Devaar Island. Once the tide goes out the Dhorlin is exposed - a wide rocky spit of earth which is covered during high tide.
We wanted to walk out to view a piece of now famous artwork painted on the wall of a cave. The painting was done by a teacher named Archibald MacKinnon in 1887. He had a dream which told him to paint this life sized crucifixion in this, the last cave on the south side of the island. The story goes he didn't tell anyone he was painting it, and when it was discovered, people thought it was magic, or devilry. Once the locals found out it was Archibald, they were miffed as only Victorians could be, and they ran him out of town.
A view of the island from the Dhorlin. The caves were around the cliffs on the right in this photo.
Campbeltown is out there, past the pier in the foreground. Look hard and you can see the church steeples and cranes on the pier.
On a sadder note, the candy shop we hoped to visit today was not open. Apparently the floor from the flat above collapsed into the shop and the place had to be closed down. They are moving locations, but aren't in the new place yet. When we walked by this evening the fire rescue team was entering the upstairs through ladders and retrieving the tenant's belongings.