Lagavulin Distillery

Ardbeg (An Àird Bheag, the small promontory) first distilled in 1798, with the latest spell from 1997. It's now owned by LVMH and produces a heavy peaty malt. The Visitor Centre is accessible, however because it is the distillery is older building, some areas on tours and tastings are trickier to navigate than others. Visitors requiring accommodation are encouraged to contact the distillery prior to arrival. The Classic Production Tour is 1 hr 15 min and runs twice a day Monday to Friday, at 10:30AM and 3PM.

Founded in 1815; the name might derive from Lag Bhròdhaig, "hollow of the broad bay". Since 2014 it's been owned by Beam Suntory. Although peaty and smoky, the whisky is pleasantly light, and sometimes dissed by the drouthy as "a gerrill's drink".

This was founded in 1779 to become perhaps the only scotch whisky distillery to be owned by a German vice-consul to the Ottoman Empire. Herr Mutter even built a steamship to import grain and export the whisky. Anti-German sentiment finished off the business in 1915; it had a series of owners and spells of production before joining Beam Suntory in 1994. The product is shipped to Glasgow for bottling. Their 12-year old single malt is smoky and peaty, sweet with a citrus tang, but doesn't have the seaweed / iodine notes typical of Islay whisky.

It is housed in the former Kilchoman Free Church, which is very pointedly not in Kilchoman. That community became depopulated and 1843 saw a great feud and "Disruption" of the Church of Scotland. The breakaway "free" faction worshipped here in a righteous huff until a 1929 reconciliation made their Free Church redundant. The museum has over 1600 items, spanning from the Mesolithic period 10,000 years ago till 1950.

Bruthach a' Chladaich means "Brae of the Shore" and the distillery was founded by Loch Indaal in 1881. It was state-of-the-art for its time, with unusually tall narrow stills. It had stop-start production in the 20th century so it was never modernised, and the original equipment was restored from 2013 under the ownership of Rémy Cointreau. Those whiskies marketed as Bruichladdich are unpeated, those as Port Charlotte are peated, and Octomore is heavily peated. They also produce gin.

Loch Finlaggan is a freshwater lake. At its north end are two islands which in the 13th-15th centuries were the seat of the Lord of the Isles, until rule passed to the King of Scotland. A visitor centre displays various artefacts of that era. A bridge links to Eilean Mòr ("the Big Island"), which can always be accessed even when the centre is closed. Here the main ruin is the castle (simply a fortified house), plus a medieval chapel and 16th-century graves. You can't routinely visit Eilean na Comhairle ("the Council Island"), which has the fragmentary remains of the Lords' council chambers.