Got up early and drove south (inland) to “Whiskey Country”. Drove through Keith (home of Chivas Regal) and then stopped in Dufftown where the Glenfidich distillery is located. As we had toured this plant years ago we didn’t go there this time, and instead took a quick look at Balvenie Castle ruins (located beside Glenfiddich) before continuing 12 miles south to the 1st legal distillery in Scotland - The Glenlivet.
On the way, we stopped at Ballindalloch Castle we happened upon a few miles before Glenlivet. What a find - still owned by the Macpherson-Grant clan, it has fabulous gardens and the inside of the castle is really a stately home - took a few illegal pictures.
We had fabulous tour of the Glenlivet plant with a young Scottish guy from Glasgow. Learned a lot about the making of Scotch and why the price is so high for the older scotches. Turns out they lose about 2% per year from the barrels they are stored in through evaporation! When they finally open the casks after say 20 years, 40% of the volume is gone. After 25 years for the really old stuff there is only half of it left! Plus you have to pay for 20 years of storage! They won’t let you take pictures inside the distillery, but there a few pics of the outside area. We bought a bottle of the 18 year old stuff and a bottle of Lochan Ora, a scotch liqueur we used to drink too much of many years ago!
Drove 5 miles further south to Tomintoul (Tom-an-towel) - the highest (most elevation) town in the highland of Scotland. It’s a cute little place with very friendly shopkeepers and a nice community feel to the place.
Drove back to Cullen via Huntly - with a quick visit to Huntly Castle - another old ruin.
It was a full and busy day, all that driving around can get exhausting… we just wonder how all those folks do it who are trekking around by foot all day and some of them have big knapsacks on their backs (must be their age - they all look like they are young) ha.
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