In one week the Islay Festival will start, on Friday the 24th of May to be precise, and it's going to be another fabulous Feis Ile week! Tourism is booming and many folk on Islay are busy with the preparations before the Calmac ferries will bring thousands of visitors to the island who will join, and hopefully enjoy, the many events and open days. Fingers crossed for great weather!! The Islay Festival Committee has been extremely busy and have organised a fabulous week with many events such as the first fling, final fling, tastings etc. Check out this link for the full programme. Unfortunately most of them are fully booked but there are still tickets available for some of the events so make sure to book now here and check further below for an overview.

The distilleries on Islay all have their open days and also offer many other tours and tastings throughout the week. New this year is of course Ardnahoe Distillery, Islay's ninth, and therefore the distillery open day programme has been slightly altered:

The Islay Festival 2019 Distillery Programme

Islay House Hotel and Port Ellen Maltings will kick off the festival on Friday the 24th. Islay House Hotel, together with the Scottish Malt Whisky Society, will offer music, games, bbq and tastings, see programme. Port Ellen Maltings will give tours starting at 11am till 2pm. A unique opportunity to watch the maltings in action. For more info and to book visit check out the Lagavulin Programme for more info. Read more...

You probably wonder what the Mount Everest has to do with our Islay Blog? The Islay High School is raising funds for their India Project and what better way is there than to invite legendary mountaineer Doug Scott to Islay to give a talk about mountaineering and his personal experience as a lead climber which led him to the summit of Mount Everest in 1975.

Doug and Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest as lead climbers on Chris Bonington’s epic expedition to the mountain’s south-west face. As darkness fell they scraped a small cave in the snow 100 metres below the summit and survived the highest bivouac ever – without bottled oxygen, sleeping bags and, as it turned out, frostbite. For Doug Scott, it was the fulfilment of a fortune-teller’s prophesy given to his mother: that her eldest son would be in danger in a high place with the whole world watching. Scott and Haston returned home national heroes with their image splashed across the front pages. Scott went on to become one of Britain’s greatest ever mountaineers, pioneering new climbs in the remotest corners of the globe. Read more....

A good tip when you're on Islay between May and October is to visit the Made on Islay & Jura Art & Craft Market. It's an opportunity to get to know some of the local artists and craftspeople, to find out what it's like to live and work on Islay and at the same time buy locally made items for yourself or as a gift for the people back home.

Islay & Jura Art and Craft Market in Bruichladdich Hall

There is a good variety of locally produced items from original paintings and high quality prints to photos, books, jewelry and quilting, which aren't for sale somewhere else on the island. If you can't find what you're looking for there's a good chance one of the artists can make it for you. All the more reason to pay them a visit at the Bruichladdich Hall.

The craft markets take place throughout the tourist season on Tuesdays and Thursdays, May to October, between 10:30 and 16:30. You can find these and other events listed in our Islay Events Calendar.

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The new Islay and Jura Distillery Tour Times Leaflet for 2019 has been published and is now available as download on the Islay Blog and for viewing online from all the Distillery Pages on Islay Info. New in this year's leaflet are the tour times for Ardnahoe Distillery, as well as info on Nerabus Gin Ltd and Lussa Gin on the Isle of Jura.

The Distillery Tour Times leaflet is typically the thing you need at hand when you are doing distillery tours on Islay and Jura as it has all information about:

• Opening Hours of all the whisky and gin distilleries on Islay and Jura
• Overview of the Special Distillery Tours
• Info on prices of Tours and Tastings
• A section with general info on eating out and public transport

With this in your pocket, or on your tablet or smartphone, you always know where to get a dram, public transport or a bite to eat! Continue reading...