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.
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