Scotland

I'm working a bit back in time now.  Some catching up.  While I'm in Tassie now, Tom and I made it to Scotland in May.  We had a great trip of wiskey (Scotland spelling) and some running here and there with some castles thrown in.

Tom has all the pictures of our run up Ben Nevis, so all my photos are of castles and wiskey.  Left Tom is in a Cannon a the castle in Edinburgh and right is the view from Coal Ila, our first of many distilleries. 

 To the left is a view of Coal Ila.  I'm just feeling enamoured with the fact that we are on Isla and in Scotland.  Really?!

Below is a panorama from the beginning of our "Water to Wiskey" tour with Laphroaig.  One of the best things we did in Scotland.  More photos to follow, it was that cool.  Here we are walking across the land to get to the river where they get the water for their wiskey and to eat lunch while drinking excelling wiskey and drinking the water.

As part of our Laphroaig experience we went out and cut peat.  Just as they do.  Tom volunteered to go first.   The reward was more wiskey!

On nearly every tour we walked through the room with the barley they were malting and saw the peat fires.  Somehow, on this tour I had the time to take pictures!

We got to taste wiskey at EVERY stage on our Laphroaig tour.  This meant that when we tasted the "fresh" spirits (just put into the oak barrel) we had to put the bung back in and Tom got the priviledge.

Below to the right is the barrel room at Laphroaig.  It was extra packed!  We got in extra special like.  To the left is the guy filling bottles at Kilchomen a small farm distillery on Isla.

We got some great photos as Kilchoman distillery.  Its a small farm distillery --- how they all started --- off the beaten track on Isla. 

Our rule for buying wiskey was that it had to be something we really liked and something we could not, no way, get in the US.  When we went to Bruchladdich we tried several wiskey's and one was a single barrel --- so you fill your own bottle from the cask, label it, etc.  It is amazingly delicious --- you are eating peat.  By this stage of the trip I'm in love with this wiskey.   So it is the first bottle we bought.  Thank you Tom!!!  Looking forward to cracking it open... (along with the others). 

There are only a few celtic crosses in Scotland and one is on Isla!

On our way to Ben Nevis we found this split rock.  I love Tom's use of the rocks!  To the right, Tom is crossing a bridge which is, basically, a wide wire and some thinner ones for your hands.  This is WAY scarier than it looks, especially with gloves on.

Above and left Umpqua Castle outside of Inverness.  Above and right is the Cairngorm Hotel with Tom and the bagpiper.  They had one room left.  It was a wild night!


Left is the Moulin Brewery in Moulin --- near Pitlochary (possibly our favorite town in Scotland, not on the island of Islay).  It is here that I ate haggis, tatties and neeps.  The folks at our shared table talked me into it and it was FANTASTIC!

To the right is one of the few remaining Pictish crosses.  We had some good adventures to get there and away.