Fresh Fish
Fresh fish features strongly in restaurant and hotel menus up the West Coast, and even the region’s takeaway fish and chips are superb, with Tobermory’s seafront mobile chip van meriting a mention in the seminal Scotland the Best guide.
Back to top
Bridge of Allan Brewery
A recent addition to the ranks of Scotland’s microbreweries, Bridge of Allan has wasted no time in establishing itself as a brewery of repute. Visitors are welcome to come and watch the processes for themselves with tours and a visitor centre. Ben Nevis, the brewery’s 80 Shilling Heavy, is rich and malty with a well-balanced hoppiness to round out its complex flavours. The addition of oats in the brewing of Glencoe Wild Oat Stout gives a smoother edge to the ale's rich flavours of malt and soft fruit. And the award-winning Lomond Gold, brewed with continental hops, is light, clean and bittersweet.
Harviestoun Brewery
Harviestoun was one of the first of Scotland’s new generation of microbreweries and, as its award-winning and popular beers testify, is still going strong today. The cask version of the wonderfully named Bitter & Twisted, golden and fresh-tasting, has in recent years won the titles of both Champion Beer of Scotland and of Britain, while Schiehallion is an easy-drinking lager-style beer.
Heather Ale
The Alloa-based Heather Ale Company brews a range of highly praised, traditional Celtic ales based on traditional recipes and ingredients yet with a taste that is definitely modern. Fraoch (Heather) uses flowering heather with malted barley to produce an ale that is malty with herbal notes. The pale, resinous fruit beer Grozet includes in its ingredients gooseberries, bog myrtle and meadowsweet alongside the more familiar malted barley, hops and wheat, while Ebulum is an elderberry ale. If you enjoy Grozet's hints of pine, be sure to try the company's complex Alba Pine Ale where stronger resinous flavours are balanced by malt and fruit.
Back to top
Whisky and Distilleries
Whisky is one of the area’s most important products. Campbeltown, Islay, the Islands, the Lowlands and Highlands, all of Scotland’s five whisky-producing regions, are represented here. The Islay distilleries, with their powerfully peated malts, are instantly recognisable and most can be visited. Appropriately, one of Scotland’s finest whisky shops, Loch Fyne Whiskies, is on the mainland, at Inverary.
Back to top