Bowmore to Port Ellen, Old and New

In March 2024, Iain McArthur — the same worker who filled Port Ellen's very last cask back in 1983 — watched the stills run again after a £185 million rebuild. It's one of the most extraordinary comebacks in Scotch whisky, and today pairs it with the distillery that never stopped: 245 years separate Bowmore's founding in 1779 from that reopening morning. Start at Bowmore, Islay's oldest working distillery, for the Signature Cask Experience — through the distillery and into the traditional warehouse, finishing with three drams, two of them drawn straight from the cask at natural strength. Heading south, break the drive for a scenic picnic at The Big Strand (Laggan Bay) before the afternoon's main event at Port Ellen. Ninety minutes inside Port Ellen Reborn moves through the rebuilt stillhouse and its world-first Ten Part Spirit Safe, into a rare 1979 vintage cask tasting inside a historic shoreside warehouse, and finishes on a pour from a genuinely rare historic release. It isn't the cheapest introduction to Islay whisky, but every part of it is built specifically around that one comeback story, not a generic tour with a tasting bolted on. Book ahead, it's online only. Let the harbour close out the day — the same shoreline the distillery's been rebuilding around since 2024.