Day 11: Portree, Oban (Connel)
Was a busy day of stops and travelling, so I set my alarm for just after 7am, and of course was awake at 6am. Google told me that Cafe Arriba, place of yesterday’s full breakfast, would open at 8am, so figured that I’d be right to grab breakfast there once I packed and sorted everything. I don’t know if today was some sort of special Tuesday, but breakfast was not to be: nowhere serving hot food appeared to be open at 8am in Portree today. Not even at 8.10am, when I grabbed a bread roll and some cheese slices from the Co-op supermarket.
While Skye is indeed beautiful, I’m leaning towards adding Portree to my travel hole in the bucket list, those places I feel no pressing need to return to. It’s a fairly small list: Auckland, Battambang, Liverpool, and now Portree.
Uncaffientated, I was ready when M & P arrived with the car, and off we went to pick up G who was also supposed to be ready. After keeping us waiting a minute in the carpark, he wanders out still brushing his teeth. Eventually, probably 10 minutes late, G gets it together and we hit the road. We were heading for the south end of Skye, with planned visits arranged for Torabhaig, Skye’s newest distillery (established 2017) and also Armadale Castle, ancestral home of Clan Donald. We’ve certainly found that with Scottish road conditions, especially in places like Skye where it’s frequently a single lane road, leaving 20-30 minutes extra time is a comfortable margin.
Torabhaig, is a small distillery with big plans. I can’t be bothered whisky-nerding things like their annual output, and all that stuff, but the brief tour (it’s only a small distillery) showed is some of the unique features of the distillery. The buildings are all heritage listed, as they contain stone from an original fort a little closer to the ocean, so a lot of the distilling equipment had to be brought delivered in pieces for assembly within, a bit like if Ikea did distilleries. There’s also a non destructive way to remove part of the roof, which allowed the two pot stills to be installed. The end of the tour had a brief tasting, as Torabhaig only has one expression currently available, but we were also able to try the wash liquor (basically an 8% unhopped beer, quite dry as the yeast has done its work, the new make spirit (clear peaty firewater) as well as the current approximately 4 years old expression, which is a decent drop, a little peaty, some maritime medicinals, and a hint of pepper and citrus.
Then it was off down the road to Armadale Castle, home of all things Clan Donald, and as one of the group is a Donald, kind of a compulsory stop. The castle itself is currently a ruin, having had centuries of rebuilding following fires and passing English warships. The grounds are very well kept, making for a pleasant stroll, and the museum is interesting, dealing with the history of the clan from its origins with Stromveld, who defeated the Norse, through support of various Jacobite claimants, and into the mass migration from Scotland in the 19th century.
Closed Tuesday also permeated this end of the island, so our first picks for food weren’t open. We ended up a The Shed, a little shack on the ferry pier that sells a basic range of food options, including a decent bacon roll and chips. I was also able to get an Irn Bru, to put some caffeine into the system.
The ferry from Armadale to Mallaig was pretty uneventful, we got some sun up on the top deck, kept an eye out for any sea mammals (none spotted) and got lots of fresh air. It took about 45 minutes, then it was drive off the end and we were away again.
Around Mallaig/West Coast there are several locations featured in the Harry Potter, including Eilean Na Moine and the Glenfinnan viaduct. Both sites had people visiting, with the viaduct crazy busy, leaving us little option to take a pic out the window and keep on driving. No sadness really at missing out.
Other than several incredibly slow drivers, the road to Oban was also fine, and we arrived in town just before everything shut at 5. We’ve grabbed some supplies for coming days in Islay, and did a quick visit of the Oban Distillery.
Dinner was at The Oyster Inn, which is where we are staying. Decent food, I had a mound of mussels in a creamy white wine sauce that were very nice, followed by a cranachan creme brulee, and both were very tasty.
Tomorrow is another early start, heading for Islay.