Islay Island… big commute

Day 8

July 21, 2025

Stats: 16 miles, AIS:1:33, Elev. 485 ft. Speed: 10.1mph

Today we had a big commute to Islay (eye-la) island on the west coast of Scotland. It is part of an area called the inner Hebrides. We needed to leave the hotel about 8am for a long drive (2.5 hrs) to the ferry port.

We are headed from Glasgow to Islay. We had to drive up and around the tip
of Firth of Clyde

We drove along one of two national parks in Scotland called Loch Lomond. It was a great wet, rainy day but the lake was like glass. Loch Lomond is famous in a song… probably the only Scottish song I know and remember from my Highland dancing days in Miles City, Montana. You can look the song up but it goes “you take the high road and I’ll take the low road and I’ll be in Scotland before ye, for me and my true love will never meet again on the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond”. Anyway… I got to see the lake.

A lake that looks like glass
This is not Loch Lomond

From the lake we rose up a big mountainside to a beautiful lookout over a glen (valley) where we stopped for a leg break and some photos.

This stop was called Rest and Be Thankful

Another map of Islay I found at the ferry stop

Then it was more winding and twisting on a very narrow road to the ferry stop. The ferry was a two hour ride more or less.. We parked the van for the next three nights…we are bicycles only.

Getting our bikes packed for the ferry ride

The ferry at the start. Cars are departing. We cue up to enter first. This ferry had a bicycle parking room.

This was a really big ferry compared to the previous two ferries we’ve taken. The seating area was two decks high with restaurants at both levels and all kinds of comfortable seating area. There was a children’s play area too. The bathrooms even had a shower!

Where we hung out for the
2 hour ferry ride

Sandy’s friend Elsa recommended the Mac and Cheese on the ferry so I obliged! It was satisfactory. Their main foods always come with peas and chips (fries).

Curt giving Sandy an upper extremity evaluation. The diagnosis…. tennis elbow

It rained the entire ferry ride and was raining as we departed the ferry for the town of Port Charlotte. It wasn’t pouring but a nice steady rain. It seems that every ferry stop has a climb out if it. This one had a short steep climb but we all managed quite easily. Once we reached the summit it was a nice gentle ride across farm fields for about 9 miles to Bridgend. The rain had eased off and the riding was delightful. Temperatures were perfect. From Bridgend we came down to the water again and followed the coastline to Port Charlotte.

Checked into our Scotland Youth (?) Hostel for 3 nights. Jim and I managed to get a private twin room for the first night. The guys are in a dormitory room with sets of bunk beds. I sense a room of snoring old men… and my sense was confirmed at breakfast! Curt and Sandy said it was really really bad. One guy quit snoring and they thought he died…he has a bad case of sleep apnea. Why don’t people take care of their issues with a CPap machine?!!

Other than the sleeping arrangement the hostel has really nice kitchen and dining room. A separate common room with couches and chairs. Lots of games, books interesting things.

My perfectly comfortable twin private room. Tomorrow it’s ladies
bunk room for me

The “Drying Room” has washer, dryer and is really warm so our wet clothes should dry quickly overnight.

We walked to the Lochindaal Hotel and Pub for dinner tonight. It was fish and chips for all of us and Guinness beer. Then we finished the night with a whisky tasting. This island has 13 distilleries… they’re famous for peaty single malt whisky. I’m not a whisky drinker by any means but I did enjoy the smoky ones…a wee bit. We will be trying some other distilleries in the next few days. Maybe I’ll acquire a taste for whisky.