So MUCH Scotch in Scotland

Adieu to Ireland

We hopped a Ryan Air and headed for Glasgow.  I felt sure Ryan Air would be as bad as Spirit but was pleasantly surprised.  Easy Jet is even better -- we used that to get to London.  So we landed and headed off to Inverary which is on the West Coast of Scotland.  The next day we drove to Oban and our first distillery (in Scotland).  What can I say -- it was a distillery.  We then set out for Easdale Island.  This island is one of the slate islands of the Inner Hebrides.  They had at one point seven quarries and over 500 miners.   The slate was exported (mostly for roofs) as far as Melbourne, Nova Scotia, Dunedin and Dublin. It is a small little island.  Well, in 1850 there was a huge storm which resulted in the quarries (some of which were 300 feet below sea level) being flooded.  They had no way to pump the water out so that was the end of the slate industry there.  Over time, the population dropped to four people and now is all the way up to 60 people.  We took the ferry (which was a small outboard motor boat) for the five minute trip to the island.  The day was magnificent and so was the island.  We sat at the Puffer, ate smoked salmon and chips and drank excellent beer while counting our blessings.  No cars on the island.  No stores.  No tourists.  Pretty perfect.

Deirdre relaxing in front of our first lodging in Scotland.

The view from our lodging.

The Oban Distillery was in the original building from 1794 with what looked like all of the original equipment from that date. Because the building backs up to a granite hill, they cannot expand.

Some of the offerings of Oban which were available for tasting.

This gray parrot was one of the denizens of Easdale.

The plaque reads: Rudder from the Salutation shipwreck recovered by divers from North Warwick BSAC 21st June 1993.

A sailboat in one of the flooded quarries, with additional pictures of flooded quarries below.

This seagull was sitting on its nest incubating its eggs and warning us to stay away.

There was plenty of slate to make walls on the island.

Our delicious lunch served on a slate plate.

One of the many old, single lane bridges we had to navigate in Scotland.

Why The Scots are Dour

Having just come from the land of the outgoing, humorous Irish we were a little set back to discover that the Scots were ---well--- dour.  Why we asked?  Basically same lineage, same crappy weather, better golf courses, better whiskey.  We found out at our first stop in Inverary.  We were sitting eating some breakfast when I looked out the window and saw what looked like two bee keepers lurking around our back yard.  They were wearing hoods with protective netting completely surrounding their heads and necks, heavy leather gloves and wellies with socks tucked in.  I went to the door and gave them a cheery "Hi".  They informed me they were the gardeners.  I looked confused.  "It's the midges," they said.  "Damn midges."  It turns out that in addition to the fact that Scotland gets about two months of summer during which it rains 83% of the time, during the infrequent bouts of sunshine they are beset by midges.  Midges are like a cross between black flies and no see ums but they flock together like the bobos (which means silly in Spanish) of Mexico do.  This is a very bad combo. Beyond commenting on the rarity of such a spell of good weather each time we went out, the locals would then append to that "and, my God, it's a miracle the midges haven't come in droves".  Well, I thought they WERE in droves but apparently things can get a lot worse.  I hope the Donald enjoyed his Scotch golf course.....

Missing the Boat

Our second day did not go as smoothly. We planned to take the ferry to Mull and hit a distillery there and cruise the island.  Not to be.  I had not reserved a slot since we didn't exactly know when we'd be showing up.  Sitting in the line I inquired of the young, rather surly attendant if we could buy a ticket.  "Well, we can get you there but I doubt you'd get back today,"  It was a Sunday.  We decided to go the conservative route and do something else.  While trying to exit the lot we got stuck behind some gates and couldn't figure out the exit much to the delight of the bored drivers and passengers sitting in their cars.  Clearly, this was our first rodeo.  We just set out and piddled around  our base town Inverary which was very charming and low key. We noticed that every small town in Ireland had an average of six pubs.  Scotland - zero. You had to get to a larger village.  Don't know why. Maybe THAT'S why they're dour.

Dunstaffnage Castle where Flora MacDonald was captured and held prisoner in 1746, after having saved Bonnie Prince Charlie after the Battle of Culloden by disguising him as her maid when they 'sailed over the sea to Skye'.

One of the many abandoned, ruined castles in Scotland.

A ship at low tide in the harbor in Inverary.

Instead of a trip to Mull we toured the Inverary Jail with its recreated courtroom scene and a jailer dressed in period costume. 

To The Ground Zero of Scotch

We left Inverary and headed north to The Spey.  This is the very heartland of Scotch distilleries. They vow that the water from the Spey River is the key to the exceptional Scotch they produce.  Fine.  We know I'm getting bored with this distillery thing.  We stayed in a really sweet Air BNB within five minutes of The MacAllen Distillery (Michael's nirvana of Scotch).  Up until this point all the distilleries we had seen had been very old, brick entities with old, wooden barns used to age the Scotch. When we pulled up to MacAllen we saw we were in for something quite different.  They had just opened (two weeks before) their new Space Age Distillery.  It did kind of look like a UFO had landed in a pasture. We inquired about a tour only to find they were fully booked for that day.  But, said the obliging lad, there was (regrettably) only one ticket left for a tour the next day.  Hiding my delight, I magnanimously insisted that Michael take it.  I stayed home and read -- heaven.

Pictures of the Spey River as we headed to our second lodging in Scotland

I couldn't resist photographing this house with a sod roof.

Scottish Highland Cattle in the pastures of The MacAllan.

The view as you approach The MacAllan distillery. The domed roofs are covered with earth and sod planted with wild flowers which will bloom in late summer. The facility opened in Craigellachie on June 2nd at a cost of $186 million.

Inside were bottles with some very old single malt Scotch...

in some very expensive decanters.

Dallas, Scotland is the original home of MacAllan.

A view across the Scottish countryside from the distillery.

Inside the distillery was quite a contrast to the Oban distillery. There were 36 copper pot stills located inside the distillery.

There are two mash tuns which hold the barley and the water from the on-site springs. There are 28 wash backs with a capacity of 35,000 liters each.

The reference to "finest cuts" is the fact that only a fraction of the distilled spirit makes it into the casks for aging.

The whisky is aged in American Oak barrels (used to age bourbon) or Spanish Oak barrels (used for Sherry).

All set up for the best part --- the tasting.

One of the best parts of Abelour (the town we stayed in) was that we found this AMAZING store called The Spey Larder.  I mean this town is little and not very sophisticated but OMG the food in that place was phenomenal.  Cheeses from around the world, a huge range of pates, wines, sweets, and marvelous bread products.  We filled our wicker basket to the brim and went for a second.  At the checkout the clerk looked at Michael and said "Well done sir".  When we travel we like to eat our major meal in the middle of the day to get a break and then we head back to our lodgings and have some cheese, fruit and wine for dinner.  We bought so much that we had stuff left all the way to England.  It was excessive but had to be done.

The shelves of the Spey Larder were stacked with some of the most tantalizing goodies.

This hen and rooster visited us outside our door every day.

I Guess It Makes Sense

As we left the land of Scotch and headed toward our next stop, Stirling, we dropped by Balmoral Castle -- the summer vacation spot of the Queen.  It is a very beautiful spot (I think the land they own is about the size of one of our smaller states) but I really question why someone who lives in the dreary weather of London and Oxford all year would choose a "getaway" in rainy Scotland -- not to mention the midges. I mean she could go to some commonwealth country with sun.  Like Bermuda. But she loves it at Balmoral.  She does all these doggy and horsey things there even though she is 92. From the castle we headed south to our Air BNB in Stirling which is absolutely a charming town.  It also contained our favorite castle of the whole trip -- rather boringly named Stirling Castle.  We learned a few things there.  First, most castles were painted.  We always think of them as a blah, grey stone but many were painted -- predominantly white or yellow.  Never swim in the moat since bathroom waste flies down channels on the outside of the building ending up in what shouldn't be your swimming pool.  It is always a good idea to have a tunnel if things don't work out well in the battle.  Michael's pictures should convince you why this castle was our favorite.

Two view of the wild Scottish countryside.

The photo below explains it all (including the swastikas) on this World War I war memorial.

The gate at Balmoral with the Royal crest.

Even the queen requires the services of Otis when her elevator needs servicing.

The garden directly behind the castle at Balmoral.

The clock tower at Balmoral.

The "guest cottage" at Balmoral.

This wisteria tunnel leads to the larger gardens at Balmoral.

Deirdre admiring the flowers in just one of the greenhouses...

which had a surfeit of flowers.

The inscription on the greenhouse.

This gives you an idea of the size of the fresh flower greenhouse.

Another larger greenhouse with the head groundsmen's cottage at Balmoral.

This is where the venison is stored and aged before butchering.

The outside of Stirling castle looked like your typical castle.

As these pictures show,  the inside was not like any castle we had visited before this. This is a faithful recreation of what the interior of the castle would have appeared in the 15th and 16th century.

This is a recreation of the exterior color of one of the interior buildings in the castle complex.

The Battle of Bannockburn

The areas of Stirling and Falkirk were sort of the epicenter of the Wars of Scottish Independence. Stirling castle was important because it controlled the route to the Highlands and the English who had taken the castle weren't in the mood to give it up.  Robert The Bruce, King of the Scots, had other ideas and started a siege.  The English King Edward II sent a large, well armed force north to combat them.  While outmanned, out archered and out horsed the Scots won the battle and retook the castle. We went over to where the battle actually occurred and, because we hadn't been in a museum in DAYS entered. They had a great multi-player 3D battle field.  A group would be taken into the war room and split into English and Scottish teams (England had more).  You had knights, archers and foot soldiers.  As you sat around the battlefield table each person in turn would be called to move some of his/her soldiers to achieve the goal of either taking the castle or killing the King -- your team captain chose which.  It was way more fun (and challenging) than one would imagine.  We were on the English team and we lost even though Michael and I believed ourselves to be "stable geniuses" with great strategic gifts.

A statue of Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn.

The plains and hills of Bannockburn where the battle was fought.

God Spare Us!

We had apportioned out a day each for Edinburgh and Glasgow.  That is not much time, we know, but we have limited patience for big city crowds and hassles.  We popped in the car bright and early for the one hour drive to Edinburgh thinking we could miss the worst of the crowds.  So, so wrong. Perhaps at 4AM we might have avoided the crowds.  As we drove in an endless loop coming close to the castle but never finding parking we passed conservatively 79 tour buses.  Michael had an urgent need for a W.C. but with nowhere to park-- in desperation-- he pulled into a handicapped slot, dashed into a bar and told me to hold the fort.  Of course a policeman came.  I explained that my elderly husband had been in dire straits and that parking was impossible and if you factored aging bladders into the equation he WAS "handicapped".  They are SO nice in Britain.  Not only did he let us off but also provided explicit directions on where to park.

We parked and slogged back up to the Castle.  Using elbows and sharp toed boots we fought our way towards the ticket booth.  You could barely see the cobblestones in the courtyard it was so littered with tourists.  We stood silent for a moment, then looked at each other and said: "We're out of here." It was at this point that we understood that while we are good travelers we are really bad tourists. We felt duty bound to trudge the Royal Mile which is billed as perhaps the most historically significant mile in Britain.  If you believe Scottish Woolen Mill shops are historic perhaps this is true.  There was one on every block.  You really had to work at figuring out what the historic buildings originally were because most were now bistros, trinket shops or selling some form of sheep produced product.

The crowds at Edinburgh Castle, from which we quickly fled.

We did get to enjoy the architecture of Edinburgh and the Royal Mile.

Some strange characters busking on the Royal Mile.

The Scots have always valued education. Adam Smith taught at a time when students paid teachers directly. When Adam Smith took another position mid-semester and offered to refund the students, they all refused.  They all said they learned more in a half semester with Adam Smith, than a full semester with any of their other professors.

Most of the Scots are not very enamored of the English and voted overwhelmingly against Brexit.

Another demonstration of how the Scots valued education.

We had now eaten up an entire morning seeing nothing and seething with frustration.  Ah... vacations.  Luckily I had scoped out a charming little French restaurant (Escargot Blanc if you're in the neighborhood) well away from the Royal Mile where we decompressed over some good wine and really good, really French food.  We had told the taxi driver (forget ever driving again in Edinburgh) that we wanted to go to Dale Village after lunch.  We had already moaned at him about our morning so he said of Dale Village:  "Good choice.  The roads leading in are so small the tour buses can't go there." Yeah!  This place was adorable -- and more so because it was right in the middle of Edinburgh and you felt like you were in the country.  While driving back to Stirling we decided that Glasgow was OUT.  No more cities on this trip.

Scenes of Dale Village in the middle of Edinburgh.

Wheel in a Wheel in a Wheel...

So cool.  Well, kind of nerdy cool.  Michael had unearthed information about the Falkirk Wheel. Scotland, like Ireland, has a huge canal system.  And in some points the drop in elevation is pretty steep demanding many sequential locks.  In this one situation, the engineers decided to mix it up a bit.  Rather than a sequence of locks they constructed this wheel "lock" (see photos) that operates on Archimedes principle.  I know, you forget.  I did too.  It's the displacement of water one. So, you get on a barge and just sit for a minute or two and then these giant cranks start to move the lock and barge upward as the corresponding lock and barge on the other side start their descent.  Mid point you can wave at each other.  It was fun to see all the people who had rented barges for canal trips in their varying degrees of marine proficiency.  In England we were signed up for another canal based adventure.

The photos tell it all. One of the more fascinating sites we visited.

From the Wheel we moved on to the second top attraction in Falkirk.  The Kelpies.  The 30 meter tall, 300 ton sculptures of two horses sit next to a canal in a huge park and were only installed in 2013. Kelpies are a mythical water animal capable of transforming into a beast with ten times the strength and endurance of a horse.  It is a little vague why they are there but they certainly are imposing -- and quite pretty.  So, photos please.

Views of the Kelpies and the canal that flows past them.

Lots of Lochs

We saw buckets of Lochs in Scotland and Loughs in Ireland and they are quite self explanatory. However, they also make for some good photos so here are a few.

We'll that's a wrap on Scotland.  Next stop is the Cotswolds.  Until then.