Islay - More than a Distillery Stop

The quaint Argyll Island of Islay, located in the mid-western section of Scotland, is best known for it’s world class distilleries.  Laphroaig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg are the most well known distilleries of this remote island known by most single-malt whiskey drinkers. Most tourists in Islay schedule their day’s activities around distillery tours.  Here they learn first hand how the peat smoked single-malt whiskey is formed from the main ingredients of barley, water and yeast into the Scottish liquid tradition.

.Being more interested in photography and not a whiskey drinker, I decided to forego the almost obligatory distillery visit and instead spend my free time wondering the small town of Port Ellen with camera in hand.  What I found on the streets of Port Ellen were   gentle and friendly people, very strong and sometimes hard to understand Scottish accents, rows of white washed homes all facing the inner harbor and a strong sense of community among the town’s people.

The day after my visit to Islay, I wasn’t surprise to read in the brochure from the Laphroaig Distillery, that the secret ingredient to the success of their whiskey was not the process, or the barley, but the “uncompromising, tough, and determined people” of the Parish.  I hope the faces in my photos do the locals proud.