” I love scotch. I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down. Down into my belly. Mmm mmm mmm “
– Ron Burgundy – Anchorman
While in Scotland a few years ago, we took a ferry to the Isle of Arran. Isle of Arran is just 20 miles long and 10 miles wide in size and is described as “Scotland in miniature.”
Many years ago the isle was home to 50 distilleries, but most were illegal because they were hiding from the taxman. The last one in operation closed in 1837.
Founded in 1994, the Isle of Arran Distillery is located in Lochranza, Scotland. This is the only distillery on the Isle of Arran today. We spent the day at the Isle of Arran distillery for their annual “Open Day”.
We began by sitting in for a tasting class and sampled many kinds of scotch.
We also toured the distillery. We learned the ingredients, the distillery process, history of the Isle and business.
We also were able to walk through the warehouse or storage area where barrels of scotch are stored for the maturation process.
After the tasting and tour, we were able to partake in the “Open Day” activities which included a band, food, socialization with other Scotch lovers while continuing to sample the many varieties of scotch. We were luck to be here surrounded by the beautiful landscape of the Isle of Arran.
After a long day of drinking, we finally loaded on a bus to drive through the rolling mountains back to the port to take the ferry back to the mainland. About 2 miles away from the distillery, Amanda realized she had left her bag on the back of a chair during the tasting class we had done that morning! The bag contained our passports, money and other travel necessities. We asked the bus driver if there would be another bus to bring us back to the distillery once we arrived at the port, but we were informed that we were on the second to last bus of the day. In a moment of panic, I told the bus driver to pull over and we got off the bus to run back to the distillery to retrieve the bag. We were left on the side of the road of the rolling mountains of Scotland, with lush green fields all around. It would have been an amazing spot to take pictures, but we were on a mission. No time to stop for a photoshoot. We began to run back up the road (mind you, we had been drinking all day) and at one point a herd of sheep filled the road that we had to navigate through. We ended up making it back just in time to retrieve the bag, which was still attached to the back of the chair, to catch the final bus back to the port.
Overall it was a fun way to spend the day and see another part of the country. We would highly recommend a visit to this friendly island on your next trip to Scotland.
-Brian
