Lagavulin Bay

Today was forecast to be the most rubbish day of the week with high winds and heavy showers. P made the call to stay in the cottage and get some of his assignment done, however I thought that ti didn't seem that bad out and decided to go on the second RSPB walk of the week at Loch Gruinart.

On my way there, there were two people walking down the road who I offered a lift to - not really anywhere else they could've been going on such a small road!  We had a good chat and they were from Glasgow and hadn't had enough of the poor weather this summer too, so they were also holidaying on Islay.

Our guide was the same chap who took us round the Oa, and he seemed to enjoy my guillemot picutres from the previous day and identified the LBJ we saw at Finlaggan as a Meadow Pipit.  We had a good walk around the reserve, but sadly didn't see any of the Hen Harriers or Choughs or other residents due to the high winds.  Luckily the showers were just showers and weren't too heavy.  I got chatting to some fellow walkers, and met a few English people who now lived in Glasgow and also enjoyed holidaying on the islands which was nice!  We did spend some time watching a group of swallows, house martins and sand martins all having a good fly in the same spot and harrassing some cows, and there was a field with a number of wet looking hares in which was pretty magnificent too.

Our guide told us about the peat harvesting on Islay and the RSPB's partnership with Bowmore where  Bowmore are paying for peatland restoration.  Apparently the RSPB have been very blunt in that the only good peat digging is no peat digging, but they are earnestly conducting the peat restoration, though it takes a number of year to replace what was lost.  Also, the whisky industry apparently only uses 1% of the peat dug up,so it;'s not huge overall but is significant on Islay.

For lunch I headed up the other side of Loch Grunairt to check out the much lauded Oyster Shack (review say they have the best oysters in the world), and whilst I didn't try the seafood I got a delicious veg and pea pesto toastie and took P a crab sandwich back.

With the weather not actually being that bad and the forecast showing the rain easing off, I decided to take myself off and walk some of the 'three distilleries' path near Port Ellen.  Whilst I didn't make it all the way to Arbeg, I went past two of three and had a good time exploring the coast.  I scared a flock of greylags and also spotted a red-breasted merganser.  Adventure was had climbing to the top of Dunyvaig castle at Lagavulin bay (a little dodgy in high wind but no accidents happened) and I took a shed load of photos.  I had to post one distillery blip from the week though, and I think Lagavulin took it nestled in the bay with all of the meadow flowers around it.