I wish this article was about Scotland’s natural beauty or its magnificent heritage, but the truth of the matter is, my only two and a half days in Scotland were spent as part of a group tour focused on Scottish whisky. With almost 400 miles driven around Scottish countryside, just one briefest of stops was made at a place unrelated to the whisky industry.

I did glimpse plenty of beautiful vistas to whet my appetite for a future exploration. In the meantime, here are quick notes on the points of interest that were visited during this expedition.

Distilleries

As a general note, every time you go on a guided tour of a distillery, you will hear a lecture on the entire process of whisky-making, consisting of five stages – malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation and maturation. The variations between such guided tours are, mostly, in the delivery of the presentation and, possibly, with some end-of-tour activities. It does not make much of a sense to go on a guided tour at each distillery that you visit. Rather, pick one or two that interest you the most, and limit yourself with a general visit, with some little tasting and shop-browsing, at others.

Please note that the absence of hearts here is not meant to convey that these points of interest are all mediocre. Quite the opposite. It is, however, not possible to rank them in any significant way; plus, I am far from being a whisky aficionado to go out of my way to recommend them for just any traveler. However, if you are in a vicinity of one, you might find them rather interesting.

There are almost a hundred distilleries in Scotland, arranged into five districts. We visited a handful in Highlands and Speyside.

The Famous Grouse Experience at Glenturret Distillery, “the oldest distillery in Scotland”, is in Crieff. One of the smallest distilleries around, it is a popular tourist attraction, due to its headline position for the Famous Grouse whisky blend. The tour is quite informative and spiced up by an interactive video presentation at the end. Both the famous blend and the Glenturret single malt are available for testing. The shop is quite adequate.

Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown in Speyside, is home to one of the best-selling single malts. It is very big and industrial. Our tour was led by a somewhat phlegmatic lady and was not especially exciting, but the size of the operations is quite impressive. It was also the only tour which included a visit to the warehouse, which was undeniably a highlight. The shop is spacious, but unexceptional.

Aberlour Distillery, in a village of the same name, is in the heart of Speyside. Its whisky probably does not come up in conversations about top brands, but the tour that we had there was definitely the best, led by an energetic and expressive guy, who skipped on the basics (as we indicated that we were already familiar with them) but added a wealth of interesting details and anecdotes; he also offered everyone who was willing a swig of the “wash”, a pre-distillation liquid reminiscent of a strong wheat beer. The tour culminated in a “master tasting” class, where we were given 5 different varieties of local whiskies, supplemented by one pre-maturation spirit; during the class, our guide highlighted for us how our perceptions changed before and after trying various types of whisky. A real winner! The shop, conversely, was the smallest of all shops that we’ve seen, with some interesting bottles on display, but not too exciting.

If you are in Aberlour, non-whisky-related, you may find it interesting to stop by the famous Walkers Shortbread store.

Edradour Distillery, the smallest in Scotland, near the town of Pitlochry, boasts a fantastic and colorful shop and offers tasting of its products at the bar in the visitor’s centre, where billboards describe in detail the process of whisky-making. The guided tour offered here is free, unlike other places, but we did not go on one.

Glengoyne Distillery, in the hamlet of Dumgoyne, straddles the road that is the official boundary between Highlands and Lowlands. Because distillation occurs on the northern side of the road, the distillery is said to belong to the Highlands district. The marketing differentiation of this distillery is the claim of being “the most beautiful distillery in Scotland”; it is not bad-looking, and less secluded than others, which provides for some nice scenery, but the warehouse area south of the the road has a bit of a dilapidated look.

The tour at Glengoyne starts with a nice 10-minute video presentation and then takes you to the production floor, but only to show a couple of steps in the process. What followed, though, was a very interesting exercise in whisky blending: We were taken to a “lab”, given six different varieties of single malts, plus two varieties of base grain whisky, and directed to use our noses to come up with a blend of our liking (100ml bottle of the concoction was each person’s souvenir to take home). Quite entertaining, although a bit more guidance would not go remiss.

The shop at Glengoyne is more cave-like than in other places and is absolutely delightful.

In addition to the distilleries, we also visited Speyside Cooperage in Craigellachie, where an informative video presentation on the cask-making process was followed by the observation of the actual process from the gallery above the factory floor. Rather fascinating!

Final note: If you are flying into Scotland, the tax-free section at the Edinburgh Airport sells pretty much the same standard stuff that is seen at the various distillery shops – and it’s cheaper at the airport. They let you taste from quite a big selection, too. Unless you are buying some rare stuff at the distillery, your better bet might be to do your shopping at the airport on the way home.

Other attractions

One nature stop that we made was at Falls of Braan at the place called The Hermitage, near Dunkeld. A tranquil forest, a gorgeous little waterfall, the viewing platform above which is accessed through a little quirky pavilion. There are reputedly miles of interesting trails around the place, but we had only about 25 minutes for walking to the waterfall and back.

Lodging

Hotel Hilton Craigendarroch in Ballater did not impress much. The room was slightly on the musty side and getting to it required practically a compass and usage of two separate elevators. It is likely the only large hotel in the area, though. The scenery around it is quite nice and the village is, reputedly, quite pretty (we did not have a chance to explore it). The restaurant seems to serve an adequate breakfast, and there is full dinner service as well. The staff was generally pleasant and helpful.

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