Islay Whisky Academy Education

Unfortunately nobody ever responded on my request by E-Mail.
Jun 29th, 2022

An informative experience, welcoming atmosphere, with friendly people.
Sep 14th, 2020

Rachel took four of us on a full day tour of the whisky, culture, and food of Islay. She is super friendly and knowledgeable about all the above. We especially enjoyed the peat cutting competition and the food and whisky pairings. At the end of the day a small beach bonfire and some well aged, top notch whisky completed a great day.
May 18th, 2019

We absolutely loved our time with Wild and Magic Islay and highly recommend it for anyone wanting to tour the island, and in particular, its distilleries. Rachel and the team are a blast, and organised a brilliant set of tours, tastings and excursions for us. And getting to experience Islay with true locals was a real privilege!
Feb 14th, 2018

This review is long overdue. The short version is that Rachel is so lovely and amazing to work with that we would not recommend looking any further, no matter what you need she can make it happen!! The longer version: We found Rachel when researching whisky tour possibilities. When we decided that we wanted to elope we weren't sure how things would turn out, coordinating from across the Atlantic. Things couldn't have gone better!! When we first reached out to Rachel she was prompt and pleasant to communicate with. She responded to all of our questions with thoughtful and helpful answers. At first she let us know that she wasn't sure about putting together a wedding but after we described what we were looking for she told us not to worry! We fell in love with her sense of connecting to the natural world and her seriousness about environmental responsibility. She put together a truly one of a kind itinerary for us that we will remember forever. She included locals at every step of the way and we seriously could not have been happier with how things turned out. She even kept it off of social media until afterwards which was no small matter :) even behind the scenes, everything from the planning to finding time to talk on the phone to payment was easy and stress free. The wedding day was perfect, the details were all worked out with backup plans that we didn't need. The spot down the Oa where we had the ceremony was absolutely stunning! Everything about our blessing was so special and lovely. She made sure there were little things that were so special like having our wonderful piper Neil play a circle of sound around our little plateau. The flowers were mostly local and Anne was a perfect match for putting them together. The bouquet and buttonhole were absolutely stunning! Everything had a part of Islay in it and we couldn't have asked for better. Margaret Anne and Nikki were excellent helpers and Nikki was our impromptu makeup artist. Lorraine did a lovely job with the hair- it was beautiful and didn't blow around hardly at all! Rhianna was a fantastic photographer and Ben did a lovely job editing the photos. Some of the above will get their own reviews but most of them do these things as a side job and it couldn't have been more perfect! In addition to the wedding, Rachel helped arrange travel from Glasgow to Islay with a very nice gentleman (David?). He was the consummate professional driver with a lot to say about many different topics. Rachel picked us up from the ferry and poured us our first Islay dram on Islay soil. She put together an "exploring day" for the day after the ceremony where we went around the island and saw almost everything that didn't revolve around whisky. We went bird watching at Gruinart and had oysters and a picnic at Machir Bay. We saw some very stubborn cows and local art. We had a very special stop at the Altoon sun circle since standing stones were high on our list of things to see. All along the way we had lovely conversations about everything local and Rachel's experiences. She is the perfect hostess! Rachel also out together a three day whirlwind whisky tour where we saw every distillery plus Jura! When we didn't have Rachel as a driver we had Charlie who was so much fun to be around. Rachel seemed to cultivate the perfect mix of distilleries and types of tours to form the perfect look at the different distilleries. Some places had a full tour, some a warehouse tasting (the best way to taste whisky in our humble opinions), and even a semi-private tabletop tasting at Ardbeg over lunch! Everywhere we went, Rachel knew each person we were meeting so we were always warmly welcomed and well taken care of. This wasn't difficult since it seems that everyone on Islay are good, kind people who want to see you enjoy their lovely island. We were sad to leave after our week in paradise but we can't wait to go back! We would enthusiastically and wholeheartedly recommend Rachel to anyone who wants to visit Islay for any reason!
Feb 28th, 2019