Aberlour

Aberlour is a Gaelic term that means "Mouth of the Chattering Burn" where "burn" means "creek". The Aberlour Distillery is on the Lour Burn which flows into the Spey River.

The town of Aberlour is on the bank of the Spey River. The town is the home of the Aberlour distillery and of Walkers pure creamery butter shortbread's. There is a lovely walkway and park along the river where locals enjoy hiking and fishing.

We took a tour of the Aberlour Distillery given by a very entertaining guide from Canada. At least the Canadian was married to a Scottish woman and he did seem to know what he was talking about. On the tour, we were able to smell and taste the whisky at various stages of the process. Chris passed around tastes of the "beer" during fermentation and before distillation. He also let folks get a whiff of the CO2 of the fermentation tanks.

At end of the tour, Chris gave samples of the "heart" of the whisky before it was aged in a barrel. He also gave us samples of 5 different Aberlour Whiskies. We learned that the key influences of the taste of the whisky are the water, the shape of the still, and the barrels used for aging. In speyside, the water comes from springs that feed into the spey river, the shapes of the stills are unique to the distillery and are maintained even when doing repairs, and the favorite barrels are from Bourbon distilleries in the US. The most interesting fact regarding the process is that two percent of the spirits evaporate during distillation. This two percent is known as the "Angel's Share".

Balvenie Castle

Balvenie Castle was built in the 13th century as a strong hold of Alexander "Black" Comyn, the earl of Buchan. Balvenie castle served as a residence for nobles for over 400 years. The castle's inhabitants included Mary Queen of Scots' in 1562.

Although not as remote as Auchindoun Castle, we also had this castle to ourselves. This castle had very good descriptions of the various rooms and buildings so you could get an idea of life inside the castle walls. My two favorite things about this castle were that pink quartz was used in it's construction and the view of a highland cow and her calf from the 2nd story window.

Auchindoun Castle

Thanks to the tip from Roy Mathers of About Speyside, we enjoyed an off the beaten track adventure. Roy recommended we visit Auchindoun Castle which was not in any of the Scotland tour books we brought with us. Thanks to Roy's great directions and the map Duncan at the Highlander Inn printed for us, we were able to find the tiny road sign next to a dirt pull-off on a narrow winding road.

We parked our car in the dirt pull-off and started our one-mile walk up a farm road (top picture). The sheep on both sides of the road watched us with a little interest. It seemed they did not see very many strangers in their part of Scotland. When we reached the top of the hill we saw another sign that guided us through a gate designed to let people in to the field but not let the sheep out. At that point, we were in the fields with the sheep.

After walking up a driveway to an abandoned home and through a field of sheep, we were finally at the castle. The castle is built on top of one of the highest hills in the area so the views are amazing. The castle is also one of the few castles with the outer wall in tact. Our favorite part of this journey is that with the exception of the sheep, we had the entire castle and castle hill to ourselves. Being in a castle high up on a hill in Scotland with no sounds other than the breeze, a few birds, and the grazing of sheep was truly one of the highlights of our trip.

Auchidoun Castle was built by architect Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Mar. The earliest written reference to the castle was in 1509 when it was given to Alexander Ogilvy by his uncle.

Craigellachie - The Highlander Inn

Based on recommendation from TripAdvisor, we stayed at the Highlander Inn while touring the speyside region. We were very happy with that decision. Our room and bath at the Highlander Inn were both very spacious. The room came with a full Scottish breakfast that was served in the dining room overlooking the lovely Scottish country side. Another great thing about this inn is that it is actually adjacent to the old Whiskly Smugglers trail which follows the Spey river to several distilleries. The bottom two photos were taken from the trail a short walk from the Inn.

The hotel had 5 rooms on the top floor, a dining room and common area on the first floor, and a pub and whisky bar on the ground floor. We ate dinner in the pub the first night. From the crowd, we knew the food was a favorite with the locals. We decided to try the haggis since it was from a local butcher instead of a large food company. The haggis (sheep's stomach and other parts we didn't really want the details of) was served with neeps (turnips), tatties (potatoes),and a whisky sauce. It was actually very tasty, kind of like a ground beef stroganoff.

The most enjoyable aspect of the the pub is we had a chance to chat with the locals. Roy Mathers, who runs a tour company called About Speyside (http://www.aboutspeyside.com/) stopped for a chat and told us a lot of history about the area. He also recommended a hike to a little known castle and gave us guidance on distillery tours. We wished we had found Roy before our trip so we could have signed up for one of his tours. He also helped us with trying to pronounce the name of the town Craigellachie. We couldn't quite get the hang of the pronunciation. He told us not to worry because once we stay the night, we are considered locals and can call it the Craig.

Duncan Elphrick, the proprietor, was the most friendly and helpful host you will find anywhere. In addition to serving breakfast in the morning and serving drinks and food at the pub in the evening, Duncan was an excellent concierge. He went onto mapquest and printed maps for us to help us find our way to the castle that Roy recommended and called Abelour to make reservations for a tour.

If you are ever in speyside, we hope you have the opportunity to visit the Highlander Inn.

Keith - Strathisla Distillery

Our first stop in the speyside region was the small town of Keith. What we found was that Keith was very typical of the towns in the speyside region. The town was built up around a distillery and was very self sufficient. The distillery (top picture) in Keith was Strathisla (pronounced Strath-I-la) which makes Strathisla single malt scotch whisky and the more known Chivas Regal blended whisky. Strathisla is the oldest continually operating distillery in the region. The distillery's vent stacks were designed to resemble a pagoda. It's design was copied at other distilleries both in Scotland and in Japan.

It was an easy walk from the distillery through the town. The town had a butcher, a small grocery, a bakery, and other shops you think of when imagining life in a small town one hundred years ago. The town also had a hotel and a pub.

We stopped for lunch in a small sandwich on the main street. This shop evidently does not get very many tourists. The waitress was fascinated with the fact that we were from the US and was anxious to share her knowledge of American TV. The most entertaining discussion was with regards to what Americans think of Scotland. She had been told the reason that so few Americans visited Scotland was because Americans did not believe they had electricity in Scotland.

As in many Scottish towns, there was a monument for the citizen's that had given their lives in the great war (center picture). There was also a small park with some beautiful spring flowers (bottom picture).

This was the first of many small, self-sufficient towns we visited in the speyside region. We have to admit, we found life in these small towns very appealing.

Elgin Cathedral

While driving from Inverness to the Speyside region, we stopped in the town of Elgin to visit the Elgin Cathedral ruins. The cathedral was originally built in 1224 but was destroyed in 1390 by the "wolf of Badenoch", who was the black sheep of the royal Stuart family. The town rebuilt the cathedral and it remained in use until the central tower collapsed in 1711. After the tower collapse, much of the stonework was pillaged until the government took over the cathedral in 1825.

Inverness

Inverness is considered the gateway to the highlands. We took a train from Edinburgh to Inverness then rented a car to tour the Speyside region of the highlands. The River Ness runs through Inverness from Loch Ness into Moray Firth. The above photos were taken on a morning walk along the River Ness. The mornings were always foggy in Inverness but the fog always lifted by mid morning while we were there. The bottom photo is of the Inverness Castle which was constructed by the Victorians in the 19th century and is now used for local government offices.

Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness

The ruins of Uquhart Castle stand on the banks of Loch Ness. The largest portions of the ruins are from the early 1500's when the chief of Clan Grant owned the castle. The Grants blew up the castle by emptying a powder magazine at the entrance to the castle in 1692 to prevent the castle from becoming a strong hold of the Jacobites. The Jacobites were using military uprisings in an attempt to return the Stuarts to the thrones of England and Scotland.

Uquhart Castle is also the best place on Loch Ness to look for Nessie :)

Loch Ness

We could not visit Scotland without searching for the elusive Loch Ness Monster. For our search we chose to take a Jacobite cruise that also stopped at Urquhart Castle. When we bought our tickets, we were told the 3:00 cruise is the best chance to see Nessie. Although we did not see Nessie, it was easy to imagine thinking we saw Nessie. The water on Loch Ness looked almost black as you can see from the picture with the ducks. Also, the patterns of the white caps were very different than what we have seen in any other lakes. It was easy to imagine seeing humps of a monster in the lake due to the erratic wave patterns.

Edinburgh Castle

The highlight to any trip to Scotland has to be visiting Edinburgh Castle. The castle is built on an extinct volcano, Castle Rock, and it towers over the city. The original castle was built in the 11th century but little is left from the original structure. The oldest structure in the castle is St. Margaret's Chapel which is from the 12th century. Additional structures were built through the latter half of the 16th century. Edinburgh Castle is the home of the Scotland Royal Jewels.

The City of Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a very beautiful city. The old city and the new city are built on hills with a valley in between which houses gardens and the train station. There are very many beautiful old buildings and very few new modern buildings. It is also a very walkable town with the most famous walking street being the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile is a little over a mile long with the Edinburgh Castle at one end and the Palace of Holyrood House at the other end. The Palace of Holyrood House is the residence of the Queen of England when she visits Edinburgh.

The pictures above show the start and end of the Royal Mile (Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood House), walking the Royal Mile, and the view of the valley with the gardens and train station.

Edinburgh, Scotland

We were happily surprised with good weather for the duration of our trip to Scotland. Most of our trip was sunny with temperatures in the mid 50's Fahrenheit. The only rain we saw was in London where we started and ended our journey.

Above is a panoramic view of Edinburgh taken from a high vista at Edinburgh Castle. The picture shows the part of the Castle, the Princess Street Gardens, the new city, and the Firth of Forth.

Off to Scotland

We are leaving for Scotland at 6 am tomorrow. We are heading overseas without a computer so I will update the blog after we return on April 18.

Spring in North Carolina

I love the spring in North Carolina. The flowering trees and shrubs are a feast for the eyes. We were lucky to be home for a few weeks in March and April. While at home, we took the opportunity to visit Sarah P Duke Gardens in Durham. Unfortunately, we were a little early for the wisteria gazebo, even though the wild wisteria is beautiful in the trees along the highways. However, the magnificent display of tulips made up for the lack of wisteria.