The plan was simple. To spend the first night of our Islay pilgrimage sleeping in the open on Eileach-an-Naoimh (Rock of the Saints) among the 6th century monks’ hermit cells. We had decanted our kit from the rubber dinghy, explored the island, seen the saint’s grave and watched as Guy Grieve from The Ethical Shellfish Company anchored his fishing boat in a place of shelter. The sun shone, the sea pinks waved in the slight breeze. We looked over the still waters to Mull. We were content. Then came the midges. Insistent vicious clouds of them.
We slept that night among the diesel fumes in the tiny hold under Guy’s wheelhouse, safely off shore, insect bites and disappointment soothed by a supper of scallops and Lagavulin whisky.
Film-maker Howard Sooley and I have gardened together for 10 years, creating two beautiful biodynamic allotments. We have travelled through India for the Observer, seen the burning ghats of Varanasi and watched wild Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata.
We met Guy Grieve when we made a fish cookbook for London’s J Sheekey restaurant. It was deep Hebridean winter, out on his rip, watching as he dived 30m down in the cold dark waters off the isle of Mull. Among the top three things I will ever eat are the scallops he pulled from the sea that day, eaten raw off a knife blade, sitting precariously on slippery black seaweeded rock.
Another obsession Howard and I share is the landscape and peated whiskies of Islay (I have a cask hunkered down in a bonded warehouse behind the Port Charlotte Hotel that I worry over like an anxious parent.) Their names conjure magic: Caol Ila and Ardbeg among others.
For five years now we have wanted to come into Islay from Mull by fishing boat, celebrating its scallops and whisky, twin tastes of the Hebridean sea. This summer, on the occasion of the Lagavulin distillery’s 200th birthday it finally came together. This film marks the trip. The world’s best seafood. The world’s best whisky. Shared with friends. Cheers.
With thanks to Lagavulin Scotch Whisky for supporting travel and accommodation while on Islay.
