Old Kiln Cafe, The

Down in the south east corner of Islay is a row of distilleries: Port Ellen (now mothballed) Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg. It’s at the last one, Ardbeg, that you find this gem of a coffee shop, The Old Kiln Café.

On the way there it’s curious to find the normally quiet roads packed with pilgrims from all over the world making their way, on foot, to pay homage to the home of uisge beatha, ‘the water of life’.

The Old Kiln Café is tucked in a corner of the white washed building in a spacious, very  high-ceilinged room with the original features and stone providing the only decoration – if you don’t count the walls stacked with bottles of Ardbeg . To the left of the entrance is a smaller area with a bar, which has a lower ceiling and presents a more intimate dining area.

A nice touch are laminated copies of past documents and extracts from old literature on distilling which provide reading matter as well as place mats.

A regular menu is offered including soup, sandwiches, baguettes, baked potatoes, panini and more substantial meals like lasagne, seafood salad, quiche. On the wall are the daily specials. The emphasis is on local high quality produce from the land, hills and sea.  I had a toasted BLT and it came with a very generous quantity of excellent bacon and salad. On first glance I felt it was a ridiculous amount but I managed – it was too good to leave any behind. Mr B wasn’t invited to join in. The coffee cake we shared as afters was excellent – well I had to indulge in the interests of research! We could also have had dumpling, pavlova or cheesecake. Everything is cooked on the premises and very reasonably priced.

Why would I go there? Excellent fare – a well earned reward after the wonderful walks in the area

Any Negatives? Very popular – you might have to wait.

Before or After
1. Continue down that road and a short walk takes you to a beautiful beach.
2. See how whisky is made. Take a tour of the distillery
3. Go back to Port Ellen and take the road to Kintra. The beach there is massive. You could also drive, then walk to the American Monument on the headland. Fabulous views from there across to Ireland