Whisky and Walks

After two very full and exciting days we decided to take it easy today.  We had a very leisurely morning including a cooked breakfast with white pudding (Matt’s favourite).  We decided to visit Tonintoul (pronounced Tom-in-Towel – so obviously a very silly place name in our household!)  This is the highest village in the Highlands, but not the highest village in the country – I wonder where that would be?

There really wasn’t much to the village – it has its own distillery (of course) but not much else, not even a co-op.  It didn’t look particularly prosperous either.  However, it does have a shop called The Whisky Castle which Matt was quite keen to explore.  We left him to it whilst we looked around the souvenir area.  I must say I am very disappointed with the souvenirs around here – in particular the lack of any patches.  They have so much opportunity – Cairngorms patch, town patches, highland moo patch, nessie patch etc etc, but all you can get is Scotland.  Very disappointing.  Also disappointing has been the lack of Highland moos, after all we are in the Highlands.  There have been plenty of Aberdeen Anguses but we’ve only come across the odd field of Highland Moos and when we have there has either been no-where to park or they have been too far away to photograph.  Bit disappointing really.

Anyhow, I digress.  We left Matt to his own devices in the whisky shop and lo and behold when we next saw him he had two new bottles of whisky to try out: A Tomintoul 12 year old port cask and a peated Ben Romach.

Pretty tree

In the Cairngorms

As there really was nothing else to do in Tomintoul we decided to head back to The Glenlivet Estate which is a crown estate where there are a number of waymarked walks.  As we had a big breakfast we needed a walk so chose a short one to fit in before lunch.  It was a good one, as in three miles we saw a ruined castle, walked along a river (The Livet) and searched for Gruffalos in a wood.  I forgot to mention earlier that it was very mild today, so mild that I was wearing just a T-shirt, on the last day of October - very strange.  It was overcast, but I would take that over being cold and wet anyday.

Whisky sculpture

Nice looking cellar!

As we were close to The Glenlivet distillery which we knew had a cafe, we decided to find some lunch there.   I had soup (it's the traditional Scottish thing to do don't you know) whilst Matt and Tom both had sandwiches.  After a quick stop at the pack horse bridge nearby we decided to head to Dufftown for a look around.  

Pack Horse Bridge

We weren't having much luck today as it turned out to be another dull town.  Very strange because there are 9 distilleries in Dufftown including Glenfiddich which is huge.  You would think that these would generate a decent income for the place, but it didn't feel like it.  I guess people come here, go to the distillery and don't even venture into the town.  There was a very well stocked whisky shop in the town so we went for a look and Matt came out with yet another purchase, this time an Old Ballantruan which is from the Ballindaloch distillery just down the road from here.

An open pub - a welcome sight

We came back via Craigellachie hoping to stop in the hotel where we had lunch on Tuesday which is famous for its whisky bar.  We were told last time we were there that the bar opened around 3pm.  It was 3.30 so we thought we would be in luck - but no today it didn't open until 5pm.  Humpfh!!!!  We carried on through to Aberlour.  I was reading in the guide book that the Walkers factory has a factory shop in it, so we thought we would stop by and see if we could find any bargins.  We came out with a stack of oat cakes and some Ecclefechan Cakes, but no shortbread!  Shame there wasn't a viewing gallery - I find factories very fascinating places.

We then thought we would try the one pub in town to see if we could have our whisky - we parked right outside and were pleasantly surprised to find it open so we headed in.  A very friendly lady gave us a huge book full of the whiskies on offer so I set Matt the task to order us some, I get bamboozled by the choice.  We then headed home with warm bellies.  Another nice day.  Thinking of going to the seaside tomorrow...