Seven Day Whisky Tour

The Whisky Isles

This tour is just an example of what we can offer - for a personal small group itinerary, please contact us.

Starting in the small Ayrshire port of Ardrossan this tour first visits the Isle of Arran, which is often described as "Scotland in Miniature," with its awesome beauty, its mountains, glens and rushing rivers. A place which was once home to over 20 illegal pot stills is home to the Lochranza Distillery, opened in the 1990's.

Ardbeg Distillery, Islay
©Duck Foot Design

At one time, Arran whisky with its incomparable water supply was considerred to be the best available in Scotland and the new distillery has already received many plaudits at the high standards of its new production run.

From Arran we take a short ferry trip to the Mull of Kyntyre followed by a very short drive to board the Islay ferry at Tarbert. A couple of hours later we land on Islay (pronounced Eye-la), Queen of the Isles, with seven whisky distilleries and miles of empty beaches Islay was once home to The Lords of the Isles.

The exceptionally friendly local people and the excellent and varied accommodation available probably makes this the best possible place in Scotland to taste and compare some of the best malts in the world.

Another short ferry trip takes us to Jura, a rugged mountainous isle with a distillery and less than 200 inhabitants. In 1948, in a cottage in the remote North of the island, George Orwell wrote 1984, that strange vision of a totalitarian future could not have been further from the glorious scenery and the empty grandeur of Jura.

Then on to the beautiful and lonely island of Colonsay. Colonsay has fewer than 100 occupants, one hotel (but what a great hotel), one shop and only 3 ferries a week. It has a ruined 12th century monastery and glorious empty beaches. Colonsay is one of Scotland's most unspoilt places and has one of the cheapest golf courses in the world (£10 a year, membership!).

Your visit to Colonsay gives you time to recover from all those distillery visits on Islay.The tour ends in the lovely town of Oban, perched on the West coast of Scotland and departure point for ferries to many of the Isles.

This tour offers four islands, nine distilleries, nine golf courses, endless miles of empty golden beaches, mountains, glens, rivers, cliffs, abundant wildlife, peace, solitude and innumerable excellent pubs. Accommodation of different standards is available from simple Bed and Breakfast to 3 star hotels with excellent facilities and superb menus.. Many of the islands' hotels have large collections of malt whisky and special tastings can be arranged, not only at distilleries, but in certain hotels.