Wednesday 29 August 2007

This morning we drive to the Glenlivet Estate. This is a Crown Estate of about 23.000 hectares (56.000 acres), open to the public and comprising a couple of villages and hamlets. There are several way marked walking and cycling routes to be made. We choose the Glenbrown and Kylnadrochit walk nr 8 which is 6,75km long. The route is a bit hilly and offers splendid views of the estate and heather covered hills. We see lots of sheep and rabbits, but no big wildlife. There are some very muddy patches, but it is never impassable. After a good 2.5 hours we are back at the car near Tomintoul, just when it starts raining. We drive to Tomintoul (pronounced as "tom-in-towel") and have lunch in a restaurant called Clock House on the central square.  Tomintoul is situated on  400m above sea level and came into being after the 1745 clearances sparked by panicking landowners after a couple of riots by crofters. People were driven of their land and herded into planned villages like Tomintoul, were they could be watched more easily. After lunch we drive back to Craigelachie via Dufftown. Dufftown has the biggest concentration of distilleries, among which Glenfiddich's, the first company that started producing single malt whisky in the 1970s. It turned out to be a runaway success and many distilleries followed suit by shifting their focus from Blended to Single Malt Whisky. Dufftown claims to be "Malt Whisky Capital of the World". In Dufftown more tax revenue is generated per head of its population than anywhere else in Britain.  There are 9 distilleries in all in and around the village. We drive on and stop at the Speyside Cooperage, on the edge of Craigellachie, for a tour. It is a  self guided tour through an exhibition, showing the history of making casks for whisky. We see a film before we move on to a visitors gallery overlooking the the hall where the coopers make and repair the whisky casks. A guide explains us what we are seeing. The coopers are being paid per casks finished and make about 45 hours a week. They earn well, the guide assures us. We really do not have to pity them. They make about 20 regular casks a day. Whisky casks are made of oak, imported from the US and Canada.  After use the casks are sent to the cooperage for repairs. Most casks are reused 3 to 5 times with whisky maturing in them for 10 to 18 years. 

After a short break in our B&B we go yet again to the Highlander Inn for a pint and a pub meal. The food is good and the service very friendly. After dinner I do a tasting of a flight of 6 Speyside whiskies. Speyside being the area we are now in. Speyside has more distilleries than any other Whisky region with over 40 of them. I get a tasting form for making notes on the colour, nose and taste. The glasses are neatly lined up on a special plank and are covered with glass lids to preserve the aroma. For the occasion the bottles are placed on our table as well. It was a true pleasure to get the chance to learn more about these whiskies. Back at the B&B we watch the football match between Celtic Glasgow and Spartak Moscow. Celtic wins after penalties and gets to join the Champions League. The next day this happy sportive event is all over the front pages of the Scottish press.  

Weather: sunny start, later overcast and rain. Dry evening. 16°C/61°F

Thursday 30 August 2007

Craigellachie - Inverness 97km / 61mi

After breakfast we are on our way to Inverness. When we get there we go straight Kwik Fit to get the tire repaired. Hertz has told us that we should have it fixed there. It turns out that the tire is beyond repair and will have to be replaced, costing £98. Our B&B is about 15 minutes outside Inverness, in Dores on the shore of Loch Ness. John and Glen own the nice and tidy B&B, called Pottery House, where we have a spacious room, with modern furniture. From our window we can see  Loch Ness. No monster to be seen!

Back  in Inverness we have lunch at Café One. Inverness is not a very attractive town. There are very few historic buildings and the new ones show a blatant lack of architectural finesse.  The town calls itself the capital or gateway to the Highlands. Which is probably well deserved, as there are no other towns or cities in the highlands. It will turn out to be the only place in the Highlands with any half way decent shops, cinemas, theatre and anything resembling a night life, that we will come across in the highlands. We head for the Kilt making centre, based above a outfitter for typical Scottish clothing. There is a small exhibition with a view on the workshop where the Kilts are put together by a group of five seamstresses. The exhibition tells the story of the Kilts and Tartan, the cloth from which the kilts are made. It is a bit of a romanticised version of the history. The truth of the matter is the original kilts were made from an almost watertight cloth, called Helande, woven from wool of indigenous sheep. The colours were clear, but soft and offered some sort of camouflage in the hills. It was worn like a toga, wrapped around the waist and knocked back over the shoulder. Tartan did not become popular until Sir Walter Scott, the writer/solicitor made it into the national symbol demonstrating Scottish unique character. He invited King George IV to Edinburgh in 1822 and dressed the monarch in a kilt and flesh coloured tights. When Queen Victoria discovered Scotland as a holiday destination Tartan and Kilts definitely became synonymous with all things Scottish. The screamingly colourful designs of the tartans and the cultivated and registered patterns for each individual clan are in reality a 19th century invention and not a centuries old tradition.  But that does not deter the Scottish tourist industry. Tartan sells, especially to descendants of emigrated Scots. These days souvenir shops sport lists titled  "What's my tartan?". You have to be related in one way or another to a clan to be able to wear a certain tartan. Great feats of genealogical gymnastics were performed in the concoction of these lists. A "real" kilt consists of about 4 metres of cloth and costs around £300. The rest of the mandatory apparel like the jacket, bag, socks, shoes and knife will double that for a complete outfit. Most Scots wear this costume to weddings or other formal occasions. 

We have a wee drink in a pub before we go to our room at the B&B in Dores. We have a break and take a short walk along the shore of Loch Ness. We then get back into town for pre-dinner drinks at  Pivo, a trendy lounge bar. It is part of chain, specialised in Czech beers, Pivo meaning beer in the Czech language. We have dinner at the Mustard Seed. A large restaurant, in a nicely converted church. The place is packed to capacity and the food is okay, but will not win any prizes. We have a coffee in a coffee place before we start looking for a quiet bar. The Glen Mhor hotel has a fine lounge bar, which is virtually deserted. Back to Dores.

Weather: cloudy. A drizzle at times. 14°C/57°F

Friday 31 August 2007

Inverness - Cromarty - Thurso 189km / 118mi

After breakfast we drive to the Black Isle, a peninsula North East of Inverness. In the village of Cromarty at the very Eastern tip of the  Cromarty Firth, about 45 minutes outside Inverness, we will go on a Dolphin watching tour with Ecoventures. Booking is essential in order to avoid disappointments. The company is led by a group of women. We set out to sea in a rubber boat big enough to seat 12 passengers. In the Cromarty Firth itself we do not see anything, but once out in the North Sea (here parochially known as the  Moray Firth) we see groups of dolphins dive and jump all over the place. We see them go down and reemerge all around us and it seems that they are following us out of sheer curiosity. They are bottlenose dolphins, who can get as long as 3 metres. Later we follow the coast line and get to see lots of water birds like  Cormorants and Kittiwakes. After two hours we speed back to the quay in Cromarty. We drive to Rosemakie, where we have lunch in the Plough Inn. After that we start on the long drive to Thurso. The route takes us via the A9 along the North Sea coast and almost three hours later we arrive in Thurso. Tigh na Abhainn  is a simple Guest house, full of nicknackery. Our room is big and clean, but the shower and toilet are out on the corridor. We go into town, and find nothing memorable. The most important shopping street, however, is called Rotterdam Street (!), which does speak in Thurso's favour. We drink a pint in Joe's Top Bar and have dinner in Le Bistro, the only restaurant that actually looks like one. Later in the evening we stroll along the beach and go for a night cap to The Grove Lounge,  and enjoy watching the merry local crowd.