Speyside

Today our bus took us through Speyside which is famous for malt whisky. It’s Scotland’s favorite drink and more than half of the distilleries lie near this valley of the River Spey. It is in a beautiful valley of rivers and glens and it’s where over half of Scotland’s distilleries are located. We toured Speyside Cooperage. A cooperage is where one produces casks from American Oak. It takes 4 years of apprenticeship to become a cooper and there are only 14 at this distillery. It’s a very specialized career. We learned of the traditional method and tools. I don’t like whisky at all, but I had a dram of Stag’s Breath Comb Honey Liqueur. I could taste the honey in it and thought that it was pretty decent.

Next we visited Rothiemurchus which is a family run Highland estate in the middle of Cairngorms National Park near Aviemore. A ranger gave a presentation about the land and animal conservation efforts. We were able to see lots of Highland cows and also red deer. What a beautiful area. We saw lots of Highland Hairy “coos” and red deer along the way and even got to feed them through the fences.

We’re only here for tonight and are having a group dinner where we had to select a starter, entree, and dessert. My choice was trout, mushroom/leek filo, or leg of duck…not happening for me. I’m having the starter which is tomato soup and a dessert of chocolate mousse. Group dinners have not been all that great for a picky eater!Read more