Speyside Whisky Trail

In 2011, I left London. At the time I was exhausted with travel and the idea of weekend trips no longer appealed to me. Despite this, there still remained some European holidays that still interested me that I hadn't gotten around to, think of it as a bucket list of sorts. These places included: Scottish Whisky tour, Turkey, Greek Islands and a road trip around the north of France. Fortunately for me, we had a trip planned back to Europe.

Back to Europe, you say. I was excited. I hadn't been back to Europe since I left and even more fortunately for me, I was traveling with a bunch of folk who were amenable to the idea of touring one of the whisky regions in the Scottish Highlands. Being a novice to whisky and the regions we settled for Speyside, one of most famous regions and admittedly the region with the most recognisable list of distilleries. The tour was a hodgepodge of private and group tours. The high level stats would be Seven Speyside Distilleries in three days. The tour would start in Edinburgh where we would join a group tour, break off half way for a bespoke tour on day 2, and rejoin the group for the penultimate stops before returning to Edinburgh.

Day 1: We arrive in Speyside, we start off at Dalwhinnie a small local distillery where we are given an excellent primer into the art of making Speyside whisky and the "The Water of Life".

Day 2: 9 am Visit The Speyside Cooperage to see where the whisky casks are made. 10 am The Solero Deconstructed Tour at The Glenfiddich Distillery for an in-depth tour. This is an excellent Tour and one of the best tours in Speyside. This costs £50 per person and we walk away with a bespoke sample. 1pm Lunch at The Malt Barn Restaurant at The Glenfiddich Distillery. 2pm Visit The Glen Grant Distillery for a short 'Whistle Stop' tasting Tour and to see the beautiful gardens - next stop Glen Farcas. At this point in time, there's not too many more stills and distilleries that we want to see. We've been drinking since 9 am things are getting hazy. 3pm The Macallan Distillery for short 'Whistle Stop' tasting Tour and to see the new distillery. 4pm Visit The Cardhu Distillery for short 'Whistle Stop' tasting Tour. This is the only distillery in Speyside that was run by a woman.
5pm Visit The Glenlivet Distillery and The Famous Exhibition. Fish and chips for dinner and we pass out.

Day 3: Morning stop at Whisky Castle Royal back with the group followed by an afternoon at Lochnager. We are now expert Whisky drinkers. For dinner we treat ourselves to Hawksmoor. Loved this trip, can wait to visit the other regions.

Scotland

During the course of my adventures I've come to realise that new cities fall into one of two categories. The first are those places which are distinctly unique. These are the places which scream individuality and ooze a distinct culture. The other, are places which lack the redeeming feature that sets is apart from the rest. Descriptions of such places usually begin with "This kind of reminds me of...". Glasgow, is one of those cities. Of the 15 hours of so spent in Glasgow I couldn't help but make comparisons to other cities, more specifically Australian cities. It would be best to describe Glasgow as Melbourne populated with people from Penrith.


After an interesting night out in the town we awoke to gray skies and rain. Our Glasgow sightseeing was severely limited to indoor activities, more specifically the Museum of Modern Art or shopping. With those two options we jumped on the first train and headed east to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh falls into the latter category of destinations. Immediately stepping off the train you're greeted by cobbled streets and medieval architecture. The city of Edinburgh was bustling with tourists and locals, many of shops, pubs and restaurants were overflowing with festival go-getters. We dumped our luggage at the hostel and headed to a traditional Scottish pub for some local cuisine.

It would be decided that our afternoon agenda be spent with a leisurely trek up Arthur's Seat (Despite protest from the girls). The ascent was cardiovascular workout, the descent provided comical relief in the form of wrong-footed slips and falls accompanied by plenty of groaning (Again, the girls). Feeling extremely exhausted I headed back to the hostel to sneak in some shut eye before our evening ghost tour.

The ghost tour of Edinburgh would be better classified as entertaining as opposed to scary. Our over-exuberant tour guide took us through the underground vaults or Edinburgh, through the narrow alleyways and finally to the cemetery. One particular eerie moment occurred with the group huddled together in the underground room. We were told by our host that "Behind that wall bodies were buried. Visitors to this particular room have reported the sensation of warm breath with the lingering smell of stale rum against the back of their necks". Then somebody farted. It was then, I knew I would not be scared.

Feeling drained and uninspired we opted for a quiet Saturday night. Turns out we were sharing our hostel room with a one Natasha Lea Jones of Pooka fame. The following day we explored Edinburgh Castle and treated ourselves to some free Fringe Festival entertainment.