One of the best things about meeting other sailors is picking their brains for recommendations on places to go and places to skip. When headed to Belfast everyone said to stay in Bangor rather than Belfast. The marina in Belfast is in the middle of the dockyards, is very small, and there are few services close by. Bangor is an easy 30 minute train ride to Belfast and was a great marina for a few days.
Our stop in Bangor was to accomplish two things. We wanted to go to the Titanic Belfast Museum and also to provision at a larger supermarket before heading further north to Scotland where large shops will be fewer. Titanic Belfast is a museum in the Belfast Dockyards where the Titanic was designed and built. Exhibits began with information about all of the different industries in Belfast that were important in the building of the ship, such as linen for the ropes, cabinet makers for the furnishings and engineers for the hull and engines. Many of the exhibits included interactive multimedia that was very engaging for both young and old. There was a ride inside the museum reminiscent of the one at Hershey’s Chocolate World. We got into a suspended car that took us through animated recreations of riveters working on the hull of the ship and workers building the interior. The SS Nomadic was in dry dock in front of the museum. The Nomadic is the last remaining ship of the White Star line and was used as a tender to move passengers from the dock onto the Titanic because the Titanic was to large to pull up to the quay. The overall experience was excellent and I highly recommend a visit if you find yourself in Northern Ireland.
We spent the next day provisioning and getting ready for our departure from Northern Ireland to Scotland. Our departure day was sunny and beautiful and we were able to sail for a while until the wind completely died. We timed the current perfectly and arrived in Port Ellen on Islay in Scotland around 4 p.m. The main objective for our visit to Islay was to do a little whiskey tourism. As we approached Port Ellen, we could see the Laphroaig Distillery a mile or so north of town and knew that both Lagavulin and Ardbeg were just another mile up the coast. All three distilleries were in what they term “silent season” which was traditionally when their water source would dry up in mid summer. They take advantage of this shutdown to give everything a very thorough cleaning so we were not able to actually see the malting floor or the boilers as they were not operating.
The next day, we rented bicycles and rode along the coastal path out to Laphroaig for a tour and tasting. We learned about the peat that they harvest and dry which gives Laphroaig it’s characteristic flavors of smokiness and the sea.
Our guide had an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire whiskey making process and was quite entertaining. We sampled five different varieties of whiskey and came away with a bottle of The Cask Lore described as “A blend of whiskies aged from seven to 21 years in ex-Bourbon, European Oak and Oloroso sherry barrels.”
Since we had the bicycles until 6 p.m., we decided to ride further down the whiskey trail to visit the other two distilleries. We popped into Lagavulin, but their tastings and tours were booked for the day. We continued to on to Ardbeg in search of lunch. On the way, we found a place called The Cake Shed, a self-service bakery which accepted PayPal. We availed ourselves of several selections and they were delicious!
At Ardbeg Distillery, we had lunch at the Ardstream Trailer and we each enjoyed a bowl of smoked fish chowder. Delicious! We hung out for a while because that’s what retired folks like us to do, then hopped on our bikes and pedaled back to town.
The next day, we decided to walk out to Ardbeg for for our tour and tasting. It was fun to cover the same territory on foot as the pace is slower and we had more time to enjoy the scenery. We passed hayfields, pastures full of sheep, cows (or coos as the Scotts call them) and one pretty amazing bull.
Our guide at Ardbeg was from Edinburgh and had a very Scottish accent and great sense of humor. He took us on a tour of the grounds to see the water source used for making Ardbeg and the barrel yard. Our tasting took place in one of the warehouses where we were surrounded by barrels full of whiskey. We had fun on the tour and tasting at Ardbeg Distillery, but didn’t end up buying a bottle. Roman likes rum and I prefer beer. We are headed further north and there will be plenty of other distilleries that will cross our path.
The next day, we headed north again under motor because there was absolutely no wind. We anchored for the past two nights, one night each in Loch Sween and Loch Craignish. The day was warm and we arrived in our anchorage in time for a swim. On to Oban!
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