Kilchoman and Machir Bay

Kilchoman is the most westerly distillery in Scotland, and the only one on the island growing, malting and distilling its own barley on its own farm — genuinely Islay in a glass, start to finish. The Roving Tour goes deep into that process for an hour and a half, finishing with a special dram in the warehouse. Afterwards, walk out to Machir Bay Beach on the island. An area of incredible beauty, and incredible power. Here you immediately feel at one with nature. Two miles of white sand that's swallowed more ships than almost anywhere on the island, including the wreck of the Patti, still half-buried in the sand at low tide. Locals don't swim here; the currents run too strong to risk it. Stand on that sand and it's not hard to go back a hundred years, to October 1918, when HMS Otranto went down offshore in a storm with hundreds of men aboard — so close to home, so close to the war finally ending. Kilchoman even named one of its own whiskies after this beach. Let the rest of the day be whatever the tide and the weather allow.