The Dottach...

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We were up and out of the house by 10am.  

Spoke to the lady who arrived to clean the house and said I would be popping into Hope Blamire's recently opened shop in Tarbert (see extras).  She said her friend worked there so I said I'd ask for her.  

Once in the shop (it is tiny but crammed full of goodies :-) I asked the woman behind the counter if she was the friend of the housekeeper and she said yes, but the other shop assistant (who wasn't there) was a closer friend.  Then she astounded my by asking "are you Diane?" Turns out she'd been following me on the Isle of Harris Facebook page where I had uploaded some photos and asked some questions.  We'd even had a conversation! lol!  Such a wonderful community here.

We left after buying various wonderful goodies (will be blipped at some point no doubt) and went to the Essence of Harris shop. Sadly despite having a ramp to the door, there is a massive door sill that my wheels would not go over so Ele popped in bought for us both.

We had lunch in the Hotel Hebrides then the highlight of the afternoon...a tour of the Harris gin Distillery.

Such a fascinating story of the vision, creation and future of a social distillery, deeply embedded in the local community, aiming to keep young talented people on the island and encourage many more to visit.

Like most gin distillers, their real business is whisky, and their whisky, called the Hearach (the name for a native of Harris) which is maturing and not quite ready to enjoy.  Once mature, it will be the first legal whisky produced on the island :-)

The tour was fascinating, let by a French lady whose husband is from Lewis.  We began with a tasting of the first draw of the whisky (a clear liquid that is 70% proof) Wow!  The eight of us round the table (apart from the drivers) almost had our heads blown off by a tiny sip of that!  Myself and another participant in the tour had a second sip that had us both coughing and our eyes watering,  It certainly clears the sinuses!  

Then it was on to the heart of the distillery, to see the stills and the processes involved in making their whisky and gin.  Absolutely fascinating but what astounded me most was the size of the still used to make the Harris Gin.  It is tiny!  And named The Dottach apparently after a local Hearach, a “feisty local lady of rather diminutive stature,” 


It's amazing that that little still creates all that wonderful gin.  The lovely young woman who accompanied me up in the lift told me it's about to produce its one millionth bottle!  We've certainly enjoyed a few of that first million!  :-))


After the tour we visited the shop and stocked up (be rude not to :-)) before having coffee and strawberry cupcakes in their little cafe.


And then it was time to head to Lewis.  


We were at Christine's holiday house in 40 minutes, with the weather much brighter than the rain we left behind.


Christine's mum in law opened up for us (and I got a lovely Hebridean hug from her :-)  So lovely to be back here.


Ele and Kenny arrived 10 minutes after us and after a quick unpack, we headed to Tesco for some supplies.  I realised as we got there that this would be the first time I'd been in a supermarket for 10 years!!!  Since we moved to our current house in 2012 I've done all my supermarket shopping on line!  I was quite excited about wandering the aisles.


The novelty didn't last long.  A quick whizz round and out again and I will happily avoid supermarkets for another 10 years :-) 


Back to the house and settled in for the evening.  The weather is once again mixed for the coming week but hoping we get some sunshine.