Laphroaig and the Mull of Oa

In 1934, a young secretary named Bessie Williamson stepped off the boat for what was meant to be a three-month summer job — she ended up running Laphroaig, then owning it outright, the first woman in Scotland to own and run a whisky distillery in the 20th century. The Grain to Glass Experience (18+ only) follows her thread through the place itself: two and a half hours through the malting floor, where barley is traditionally hand-smoked on site (adapted during Laphroaig's Silent Season), into the warehouse for a cask tasting comparing oak, cask type and size, finishing with a glass, lanyard, and your own 100ml sample hand-filled from your favourite cask. From here it's a drive out to the Oa peninsula for the American Monument & Mull of Oa Circular: a two-and-a-bit mile loop from the RSPB car park, boardwalk through the wetter ground before the path climbs the clifftop to the memorial itself, Atlantic dropping away on both sides, golden eagles overhead if you're lucky and Ireland visible on a clear day.