Islay Festival Diary Friday - Bunnahabhain Distillery

Bunnahabhain Distillery hosts its Open Day and the lads from Skerryvore made an appearance here too. ‘Highland Games’ with Absolutely Scotland were archery, wellie-hurling, tossing the caber and fly-casting, which all added to the day’s fun. Kirstie McCallum gave informative and flavourful Blending Classes, and tours and tastings of Bunnahabhain and Black Bottle proved very popular. The barbeque provided by Islay Masters Swimming Club, and the seafoods stalls, were much enjoyed.

Friday night was a Family Ceilidh held in the Ramsay Hall, Port Ellen where, amongst others, Bowmore Primary School’s successful Gaelic choir and Ella Edgar’s talented Highland Dancers entertained friends, families and visitors. For the more dram-minded, there was a second chance to hear the lecture by author Ian Macilwain, and to enjoy an evening of whisky tasting with pictures and stories gathered from over fifty distilleries for his book 'Bottled History'. This time, the lecture was held in the Islay Field Centre’s lecture room in Port Charlotte. Black Grouse’s 'Whisky and Wander'; a talk, tasting and guided walk was offered at RSPB Loch Gruinart reserve, leaving from Aoradh RSPB Centre.

The mini highland games which featured tossing the caber, archery, fly fishing and others

Bunnahabhain Distillery Open Day from ileach newspaper on Vimeo.

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A study in concentration in the whisky blending masterclass

Skerryvore playing in the courtyard on a very sunny afternoon

Images courtesy Mark Unsworth of Islay Studios