More Hebridean adventures, with tea from a 128 year old…..
Here’s a few fun images from my recent jaunt to Harris Distillery on the Outer Hebrides. This year my wife Krista came along for a ‘holiday’ and to maybe help out ‘just a wee bit’. Didn’t quite happen that way. She was with me for most of the trip dangling lights off boats, running away from monster waves and hauling gear around warehouses. Still it’s always a pleasure to meet up with the Hearachs again and introduce Krista. It may be a job but I’m meeting with folk that are more friends than clients. Myself and Krista had some fine adventures with even a bit of time at the end for a trip down to Rodel and then over to Skye for a few days.
Lewis McKenzie brings in the sea kelp. An essential ingredient of Harris Gin. Lewis has a huge knowledge of the crop which has recently been under threat of being commercial dredged, a ruinous practice. One of the locals takes a sniff of the Harris gin at Hushinish beach storms one minute….blue skies the next…. Kenny checking out the peat supplies that will be used to give the Harris whisky it’s smokey flavourNew distiller Norman Ian with his bairns on Luskintyre beachlooking very at home on Hushinish beach.The design of the bottle was inspired by the beautiful patterns you get on Harris beaches.Harris is a truly otherworldly place. Where else will you get to see waterfalls running backwards? Probably around a 60mph wind out there.I can never resist the view of the Clisham from Aird Asaig. Managing director of Harris distillery, Simon Erlanger, travels from Stornoway down to Harris on his classic bike, and on a day that’s not raining! Simon doesn’t like the rain. Lewis trying not to look like a kelp monsterStevie with a traditional peat cutting tairsgear.Guardian of the Clisham, with the new distillery warehouse in the background.Production manager Kenny Maclean checking the stock at Aird AsaigBilly filling the Dottach for another distillation of Harris gin. Just a 72 hour process end to end. A wee bit quicker than the 5-10 years it takes for whisky to be ready! It’s been one of their best decisions to have added gin production to the distillery, it created an almost instant income stream thats been many times more successful than anticipated.Days I love my job, no. 4.The legendary Temple cafe down in Northton, wonderful food and atmosphere. Sadly about to close.….just along from Croft 36, what an amazing concept. A shop all done on trust, just help yourself and leave your payment. Wonderful pies and soup to be had.Inside St. Clements, the 15th century church in Rodel on our day off. Such an amazing place.My favourite moment on Harris…. Down the Golden Road we stopped at this ‘cafe’ (a church hall selling soup and toasties on Tuesdays and Saturdays). There was the sweetest old lady managing things. I asked her how long she’d been there, she stopped to think for a while, raised her finger and said proudly, ‘since 1908!’ I’d just love to think it might be true, but she did eventually rectify it to 2008. Love it!
