Don’t worry, we didn’t try any wine in Scotland (though it does exist), this trip was another departure from the wine world, much like our trip to Mexico.
We chose Scotland for two reasons: first, Brenda and I are huge Outlander fans and the scenery in the show looked spectacular; and second, our son Adam is a whisky expert and was interested in seeing a few areas he hadn’t visited before.
To understand Scotch whisky, it’s best to start with a map. You’ll notice that in Scotland, “whisky” is spelled without an “e.”
To be considered a whisky region in Scotland, an area must have at least three operational distilleries. There are five official regions: Lowlands, Islay, Campbeltown, Highlands, and Speyside.
Geographically, Speyside lies within the Highlands, but due to the high concentration of distilleries (around fifty), it has its own distinct region.
Note that the map also shows an area called the Islands, comprised of the western and northern Orkney islands. As far as I know, all the islands are considered part of the Highlands with one exception: Arran. Arran is called “Scotland in Miniature” because a fault line runs through the island. This caused the northern part to be buckled into mountains (the Highlands), while the southern part is flat (the Lowlands). Consequently, the Arran distillery in the north is in the Highlands, and the Lagg distillery in the south is in the Lowlands.
Our trip took us to a few areas not typically on a first-time visitor’s list. Most first-timers head to Speyside for its sheer number of distilleries or to Islay for its famously smoky whisky. That’s exactly what Adam did on his first two trips. (See the bonus blog on these two areas.)
For this tour, our primary destination was Campbeltown. It’s one of Adam’s favorites and, in his opinion, one of the best whisky districts in Scotland—and the only one he hadn’t visited. While researching, I came across the Isle of Arran, which looked interesting, and Adam happened to really like Arran whisky, so we added it.
Knowing we wanted to see the historical Outlander sites, we headed up to Inverness. Using my trusty Rick Steves guide book, I saw that Oban and Fort William were along the way, so we added them in. As it turns out, they both happen to have a distillery. Finally, when looking for distilleries near Inverness, there were one or two nearby, the fifty in Speyside (which Adam had already seen), and three up by Tain. We like small towns for a change of pace and thought Tain would do the trick.
We started our trip in Edinburgh, a true bucket-list destination. The Royal Mile looks like you’ve stepped into medieval times, except for the tourists and the occasional Mickey Mouse. It simply seeps history and was the inspiration for many literary works like Harry Potter and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. We didn’t drink any whisky here, just wine and beer. I’ve heard reports that Britain is upping its food scene, especially in London. I can confirm that Edinburgh now has a great food scene. The best meals of the trip were just around the corner from where we were staying on Thistle Street. We spent a week in Edinburgh, though three or four days are all you really need to see the town. The extra time was for the three bus tours we took.
The Edinburgh highlights are the Royal Mile (use the free audio tour on the Rick Steves website), the Castle, the Royal Yacht Britannia, Calton Hill for the city and Firth views, a Harry Potter tour (we did both our own and an organized one), and the National Museum of Scotland. The tours we did were an Outlander filming locations tour and two from Rabbie’s Tours (https://www.rabbies.com/): one to St Andrews and Fife and another to Hadrian’s Wall.
Our next destination was Glasgow, an hour train ride from Edinburgh. We met up with Adam and Tyler (another son) for a whisky tasting after visiting two museums: Riverside and Kelvingrove. They both had some good stuff, but Kelvingrove had one spectacular painting: Christ of St. John of the Cross by Salvador Dalí. There are only a handful of paintings that truly move me, and this was one. Dalí is known for his crazy surrealism, so I was very surprised to see a conventional-style painting. We had a day to kill in Glasgow before our next leg, so Brenda and I found a website (https://justinpluslauren.com/glasgow-mural-trail/) with an interactive map of street art, and there were some really good ones.
The other thing we did that day was repack our luggage so it would make it on the plane. We had to ensure we weren’t overweight, because the luggage wouldn’t be allowed on otherwise. Luckily, the Marriott Adam was staying at allowed us to keep our luggage there since we were coming back to Glasgow.
When we got to the airport and saw our plane, we understood the weight restriction: it was a Canadian bush plane, the Twin Otter. A great plane, but small. This plane offered a great aerial tour thanks to its low-flying altitude. You can get to Campbeltown by bus, but a scenic 45-minute flight versus a four-hour-plus bus ride was an easy decision. Here’s another pro tip: small towns in Scotland don’t have taxis waiting at the airports. It’s best to book one ahead of time. I was given this advice by Tyler and booked Roy’s Taxi, who never showed up. Luckily, we were able to get hold of Tavies Taxis. We used them again another time to go out to Davaar Island. Both drivers were friendly and very interesting to talk to. My breath hitched in my throat when I saw the view from our AirBnB; it was the best view of the harbor we could find. This is what I came to Scotland for—the beautiful scenery.
The Springbank family of whisky companies includes the Springbank Distillery, the Glengoyne Distillery, and Cadenhead independent bottler. They each offer their own tastings and tours, so if you are going all this way, you’ll want to book three tours. You’ll definitely want to do a Springbank tour, as it’s one of the few that still malts its own barley, which you get to see on the tour.
I knew that most of the flavor in whisky comes from the barrel, but in Scotland, every place said that 30% of the flavor comes from the distilled spirit and 70% from the barrel. So I decided I would try to figure out which wood I liked best. Here is another pro tip: make use of the tasting bar. You will get one to four or five drams (25ml) to taste, depending on the tour. A basic tour will give you their big seller to try and maybe one of their good ones. Adam will always pick a tasting, often done in the warehouse, over a tour. The process is the same everywhere (except for Springbank’s malting floor), so you just want to get to the tasting. The tasting bar allows you to try some different whiskies that aren’t on the tour.
I took advantage of this option to help me determine my preferred wood. It turns out I like “sweet wood,” my term, not an industry term—feel free to use it. “Sweet wood” means the barrel was used to age a sweet alcoholic liquid. The two sweet woods I determined suited my palate were Port and Pedro Ximénez. Pedro Ximénez is a spectacular dessert sherry wine that tastes like liquid raisins; it’s often referred to as PX for short. Sometimes you have to ask what kind of sherry cask was used, because there are five or six different kinds used in Scotland.
I think I figured out why I wasn’t a Scotch fan before: I just hadn’t found my wood. I was also able to determine that I am not a fan of ex-bourbon cask whisky. Unfortunately, everyone makes a version, since bourbon barrels are the cheapest. The reason is that bourbon requires a virgin barrel for every batch, so they have a lot of barrels to get rid of. Port and PX barrels have a much smaller supply, especially PX, since it’s not well known or widely consumed. As a result, Port and PX barrels can cost ten times that of bourbon barrels. This all translates into price, so for your sake, I hope you like bourbon as opposed to my pricy sweet wood. By the way, there is another sweet wood I didn’t get the chance to try: a Sauternes.
On day two in Campbeltown, Adam and Tyler went to the third distillery in town, Glen Scotia. Brenda and I wanted to go biking. Apparently, like taxis, you have to book bikes ahead. The bike shop was a closed warehouse door. So we pivoted and took a bus out to Davaar Island. There’s a spit of land you can walk on to get to the island at low tide. We started walking but decided it was too far. We did take our binoculars and were able to see these black and white birds with bright orange beaks. The Tavies taxi driver told us they were oyster catchers. We bumped into a couple of big lads and their father. They had fishing gear and were headed for the island. We had a “small world” incident that evening for dinner at the Lochside restaurant. They seat you in a room until they are ready for you in the dining room. The two lads and their dad showed up, so we had someone and something to talk about. I love these random travel events.
When I was poking around the internet for Campbeltown, I ran across the island of Arran. I asked Adam if he knew anything about it, and he showed me his collection of Arran whiskies. Doing a bit of research, it became clear that you need a vehicle to tour this island. So I did a search and came up with Kirstin at www.starfishtravel.scot. What a find that was. This is only the second time we have used a private tour company, and we are getting spoiled. Kirstin is professional, has a great personality, and is a consummate whisky expert. It was quite entertaining listening to Adam and Kirstin discuss whisky. The day before pick-up, Kirstin asked if she could bring her black lab on the trip. We love dogs and miss our grand-pup when traveling, so we were very happy to have Roy join us.
We went on a couple of hikes on the island. One gave us the perfect view of the Lowlands transitioning into the Highlands. The other was to some stone circles; Brenda keeps pressing her hand on the stones to go back in time to meet a strapping highlander.
I mentioned Arran has two distilleries; the one in the north is the Arran distillery and has non-peated whisky, and the one in the south is the Lagg distillery and has peated whisky. They are both owned by the same company. Spending two days on the island required us to stay overnight at the Corrie hotel. It was very reasonably priced, cozy, and had good food. The tour ended back in Glasgow.
The next day, Adam, Brenda, and I headed up to Oban; Tyler went home. Oban is a lovely little town right on the water. Unfortunately, this is where we ran into the worst weather of our trip. The rain was coming sideways, and umbrellas were turning into pretzels. This is where I understood why the Scotch invented and consume whisky: it’s the only thing that can warm you from the inside out. Of course, Oban has a distillery called Oban, but it’s pronounced Obin. I was looking for some live music, but it only started at my bedtime. However, we did have some fun at the pub. A couple came in with the cutest little toy poodle (our grand-pup’s breed). They were so friendly once they saw we are dog lovers. The funny part was that this guy looked like a biker or hitman from central casting.
Moving north, we bused up to Fort William. This place worried me; it was difficult to find good, reasonably priced accommodations with a decent location. However, it all worked out fine. So here’s the layout of the town: at the top are the train and bus stations, then the High Street with restaurants and shopping, and then guest houses stretch out across from the loch. If you look on a map, you will see it’s not a real freshwater lake; it’s an extension of the ocean. I only figured this out when I saw a cruise ship one morning on the “lake.” We stayed at Ardlinnhe Cottage, a ten-minute walk to the High Street.
We did three main activities here: the Ben Nevis distillery, the Jacobite Express (also known as the Hogwarts train from Harry Potter), and a hike in Glen Nevis. The distillery had a nice tour at a very historic site, which will be 200 years old in 2025. I didn’t get any sweet wood whisky here, so it wasn’t my favorite.
The train ride was great, and it would have been spectacular if it wasn’t raining. The scenery was the most dramatic, with rocky mountains covered in grass. The gullies at Glenfinnan were stunning, although it was difficult to appreciate because this is where the viaduct is. You get a great view of the viaduct one way, and you switch seats for the other way. What was a bit amazing were the hundreds of people lined up along the hillsides looking to get their picture. You get a couple of hours in Mallaig to grab lunch and go shopping. Of course, there is a wizarding supply store in town for the people who dressed up as wizards on the train. We managed to get a hike in without getting rained on. The highlight was either seeing two highland coos (that’s not a typo, that’s what they call highland cows) or the beer from the local town nearby. Beer is very local in Scotland. The beer I had out in Glencoe you couldn’t find a half-hour away in Fort William. It was the same everywhere. The only place I saw Arran beer was across the water in Campbeltown. When we were up north in Tain, we were getting Orkney beer. By the way, these local brews, usually in a bottle, were fantastic.
The city of Inverness was quite nice with the River Ness running through it. Inverness did not have a distillery in it, but that didn’t stop us from drinking whisky. Adam found a whisky shop called the Malt Room where you can taste a dram and then buy a bottle across the street at the Malt Shop if you like it. So, thinking that I like Port finishes, I tried a dram of Tomatin 14-year-old Port Casks and I liked it, so I bought a bottle (50ml, haha). We went to the highland games to get a bit of local culture. It was great to see the procession of the pipe band and a few sports. I was hoping there would be more interaction with the locals, but that’s my imagination getting carried away. Like most shows, they put the favorite competitions at the end of the day. We were getting tired and bored, so we missed the caber toss, but we did get to see the hammer throw and shot put.
The next day we did another Rabbie’s tour, this one of the historical Outlander sites. They don’t call it that, but knowing the show, it’s pretty easy to spot the Culloden battlefield on the itinerary. The funniest or maybe saddest thing we saw at Culloden was the grave marker of the Fraser clan being cordoned off. Damn disrespectful tourists ruining things for the rest of us. The other main site we visited was Clava Cairns; this was the inspiration for the standing stones in the novel. It was a very interesting site. There were a couple of other stops as well. Camille, our French guide, was excellent. This young lady did her research and had so many interesting stories and facts. This quality of guide is why you want to use Rabbie’s for your day tours. The one thing Inverness offered that was on my list but I couldn’t find anywhere else in Scotland was a bar with live entertainment that didn’t start at 10 p.m. The bar was the Highlander, and the band was great, playing a mix of top 40 and Scottish folk songs all at 7 p.m.
On to our last and maybe best town of Tain. Tain was the smallest (population 3,570) and quaintest town we stayed in. One reason for the fond memories was our accommodations at St. Duthus Guesthouse. The rooms were lovely, and we really liked the fresh fruit for breakfast, but the proprietor, Kim, was such a kind and wonderful person. Adam and I had a whisky tasting booked at Balblair shortly after we checked in. Kim phoned the taxi (only one in town), but she was only able to pick us up, not take us there. So Kim took us herself and refused any kind of payment. She told us to “pay it forward.” Dinner was easy with a three-minute walk back to the train station, where a lovely little restaurant resided. Being this far north, we were getting Orkney beer, which was excellent.
The next day, Brenda and I went to Portmahomack to learn more about the Celtic tribe, the Picts. Adam went to Brora Distillery and had one dram of a 39-year-old whisky that sells for $28,000 a bottle. Apparently, it was exceptionally smooth. Our last day in Tain was at the big boy in town, Glenmorangie. The first place they send you when you arrive is the museum. That is where they tell you how to pronounce their name, and it’s not what we were saying—it rhymes with “orange-y.” One thing about distilleries owned by big corporations (Glenmorangie is owned by Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy) is that their facilities are very nice, especially the tasting bar and sales room. Since I was running out of room in my suitcase, I really liked the little three-pack I bought; each was 100ml. I found another Port barrel whisky, and it was in the three-pack.
To finish off the tour, we made our way back to Edinburgh. We had a day to kill, so we all went on a Harry Potter tour and went back to the National Museum.