Port Ellen to Ardbeg walk on the Three Distilleries Path

A walk · Port Ellen

The Three Distilleries Path – Port Ellen to Ardbeg on Foot

6 milesthere and back

free parkingdogs on a leadtoilets

Three of Islay's best-known distilleries stand about a mile apart on the south coast, and a tarmac path links all of them to Port Ellen.

It runs beside the road past Laphroaig and Lagavulin to Ardbeg, with the sea never far off. It's flat and easy underfoot, and on a weekday there's lunch at Ardbeg before you walk back.

Where it starts

Start at the free public car park at Imeraval in Port Ellen; the path starts at the village primary school.

Directions to the start

Is it for me?

Tap who is coming, or the day you have, for the answer on this walk.

Before you go

On the path

About two hours' walking: 9.7 km, or six miles, there and back on a tarmac path, about three miles each way. Tarmac all the way and wide, without many steep stretches. For children, flat tarmac, but six miles there and back: the bus can save small legs one way.

Good to know

All year in daylight. The Old Kiln Café at Ardbeg opens Monday to Friday from October to March and is shut from 22 December to 4 January. Every Islay ferry uses Port Askaig while Port Ellen's terminal is closed, until 2029. No ferry on 25 December or 1 January. Wind can stop the boat: look at CalMac's service status page on the morning you travel. From November to January, set off by 11am. Dogs on a lead: the path runs beside the road and is shared with bicycles. Public toilets in Port Ellen, beside the main road at Imeraval. Shared with cyclists. The 451 bus between Ardbeg and Port Ellen runs Monday to Saturday: check the times. Every Islay ferry uses Port Askaig while Port Ellen's terminal is closed, until 2029. No ferry on 25 December or 1 January. Wind can stop the boat: look at CalMac's service status page on the morning you travel.

The walk

The Three Distilleries Path is an out-and-back walk from Port Ellen along Islay's south coast to Ardbeg, about three miles each way. The Machrie hotel's walking guide gives it as 9.7 km there and back and allows two hours' walking, so give it longer with stops. It's wide tarmac all the way, mostly gentle, beside the road, and cyclists use it too. To walk one way, Islay Coaches' 451 bus runs between Ardbeg and Port Ellen a few times a day from Monday to Saturday: check the times first.

Port Ellen was planned and founded in 1821 by Walter Frederick Campbell and named for his wife, Lady Eleanor, and most of the island's distilleries still take their malt from the maltings there. The path starts at the village primary school and runs east beside the road to Ardbeg, with Laphroaig and Lagavulin on the way. Laphroaig comes first, down by the shore with its name in black along a white warehouse wall. It was founded in 1815 by Donald and Alexander Johnston, and in 1994 the Prince of Wales, now King Charles, presented it with a royal warrant in person on a visit.

Lagavulin is next, with the ruin of Dunyvaig Castle on a rock at the mouth of its bay. The castle was a base of the Lords of the Isles, whose galleys anchored here, and the distillery dates officially from 1816, on a site where illicit stills were recorded from 1742. Ardbeg is at the far end, making whisky since 1798 and commercially since 1815. Each has a shop, and tours and tastings are booked ahead on each distillery's own website. If you're tasting, remember that somebody has to drive away from Port Ellen afterwards.

Port Ellen is 19 miles from the ferry at Port Askaig, about 40 minutes' drive. Islay's car ferry is CalMac's, from Kennacraig in Kintyre, and the crossing takes just under two hours. The terminal at Port Ellen is closed for rebuilding until 2029, so every boat lands at Port Askaig, in the north-east of the island. Book the car on before you travel, and be at the pier 30 minutes before the boat sails. On the winter timetable, from 19 October 2026 to 25 March 2027, the first boat leaves Kennacraig at 7am, or at 10am on a Tuesday and a Sunday. The last boat off the island leaves Port Askaig at 5.25pm on a Monday and a Wednesday, 6.05pm on a Tuesday and a Friday, and 6pm on a Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Read the times on CalMac's Islay page before you go. Wind can stop the boat: look at CalMac's service status page on the morning you travel.

If it rains

It's tarmac all the way, so rain only makes it wet, and each distillery has a shop to step into. In heavy rain walk as far as Laphroaig and back, which is about half the distance.

Along the way

About 1 hr 16 min on foot
The Old Kiln Café, Ardbeg
Lunch
The Old Kiln Café is inside Ardbeg's visitor centre, where the path ends, about an hour on foot from Port Ellen. From October to March it opens from Monday to Friday, with coffee and home baking from 10am and lunch from noon until last orders at 3.30pm. Expect soup, smoked haddock chowder, open sandwiches and pies, and perhaps a short wait, as small groups can't book. Dogs wait outside. It's shut from 22 December to 4 January. From April to September the Ardstream trailer in the courtyard serves food instead, also Monday to Friday. At the weekend, bring a flask or eat in Port Ellen.

Before you go

Book the ferry to Islay
Book the car onto CalMac's Kennacraig to Port Askaig ferry before you travel, out and back, and be at the pier 30 minutes before the boat.

After the walk

Something to do with the rest of the day, and dinner, nearest the end of the walk first.

With the rest of the day

White cottages line a clifftop row with a lighthouse in the distance

0 min by roadThings to doIsle of Islay (pronounced Eye-la)The most southerly of the Hebrides, known for its whisky, its beaches and Finlaggan, seat of the Lords of the Isles.

Laphroaig's white warehouses with the name in black across the bay, waves on the stony shore.

4 min by roadThings to doLaphroaig DistilleryA distillery on Islay's south coast near Port Ellen, founded in 1815, with its own malting floors and peat kilns.

The white front of Lagavulin with its name on the wall and the red chimney behind.

4 min by roadThings to doLagavulin DistilleryThe distillery of 1816 on Lagavulin Bay, near the ruins of Dunyvaig Castle, making deeply peated malt.

The broken tower of Dunyvaig Castle on its rocky point, the sea grey beyond.

6 min by roadThings to doDunyvaig CastleThe ruined sea fortress of the Lords of the Isles on a rocky point in Lagavulin Bay.

Carraig Fhada lighthouse on its rocky point under a dark sky.

8 min by roadThings to doCarraig Fhada LighthouseScotland's only square lighthouse, built in 1832 at Kilnaughton Bay by the Laird of Islay in memory of his wife.

The crown and the words THE SHOP on the red telephone box.

8 min by roadA shopShop in the BoxA red telephone box on the Oa road turned into an honesty shop of island prints and cards, raising money for good causes.

For dinner

Bowmore Hotel in Bowmore, 16 minutes by road. A family-run hotel on Jamieson Street in Bowmore, with Lucci's Whisky Bar and some 1,800 Islay and Jura malts.

Peatzeria in Bowmore, 16 minutes by road. An Italian restaurant and takeaway on the seafront in Bowmore, with pizzas topped with Islay crab and scallops.

Harbour Inn in Bowmore, 16 minutes by road. Bowmore Distillery's small guest house by the harbour in Bowmore, with seven rooms looking over Loch Indaal.