Scotland: Whisky Trails?
 

I am researching doing a Whisky Tour in Scotland - i have always loved any kind of fermented peregrination and have done a slew of brewery, vintner, Champagne, etc tours - but not Whisky.

This info comes from www.scotsagent.com

"Here is a wee taste of an 8-day Whisky itinerary. Downlaod the full itinerary at www.bookingscotland.com/itineraryadvice."

It covers Bowmore and Bruichladdich distilleries;
Ben Nevis; talisker;

Scotland's Malt Whisky Trail - includes seven whiskey distilleries and the Speyside Cooperage.
Strathisla Distillery

and Edinburgh's The Scotch Whisky Experience (which i have visited and though a Kitschy 'experience' - old whisky barrels converted to cars that roll thru an exhibit documenting whisky's history in Scotland. I did like it when the guide said and the reason that when they open the barrel after aging there is some whisky missing, the Scotch say 'tis the angels' portion') Cute

the guide i'm reading also says 'Scotland has two whisky trails - The Malt Whisky Trail in Speyside and the West Coast Malt Whisky Adventure - www.maltwhiskeytrail.com and www.whiskycoast.co.uk

Now my Qs are - what were your favorites and as i always travel by public transportation - trains if possible what would be the best two or three visits to target that i could get to by train or bus?

Any comments appreciated - and Cheers

Favourite whats? Malts or distilleries?

Oban, Edradour. Ummm.... that's it.

There are others on train routes- Strathisla being one- but "good" and on train routes, that's a different thing.

Actually, there are 2 more, Old Pulteney and Glenmorangie.

You can get to all of them by bus. How long it would take you is another story.

We traveled by rail in 2004 from Glasgow (where we'd arrived by air) north and east to Elgin on the north coast (about four to five hours as I recall), where we got a local bus that traveled south for about 25 minutes to a half hour to Aberlour on the River Spey, where we stayed for three days. Aberlour is the home of the bakery of Walker's Shortbread Cookies, but, more to the point, Aberlour distillery is in the town, and Glenfarclas and Macallan are within walking distance of Aberlour and we visited them (as are several other Speyside distilleries which we didn't visit).

We had a great, low-key time in Aberlour before traveling back north on the same bus and on east and south to Edinburgh.

Mohun,

Funny you should mention Aberlour today as I just yesterday signed DH up for a 2 hour tasting tour at Aberlour in June. Did you do the 2 hour tasting tour and how did you like it? I do not drink so I will hang out in town while DH noses his whisky. Besides whisky, what did you do in Aberlour?

We liked Edradour too,the smallest distillery in Scotland, they said. It's near Pitlochry and Blair Castle as I recall, but sorry, I think this was the rare trip where we had a car instead of taking trains as usual. I think if you got to Pitlochry by train you might be able to get bus/taxi to Edradour. It was actually a lovely little place.

I did both Edradour and Blair Atholl distilleries on a 2 night trip to Pitlochry last year,I had been to both before but always enjoy a return trip especially to Edradour.
3 years or so ago we ( my brother my self and a friend) had a long weekend in Craigellachie,where we visited the Macallan distillery as well as Glenfiddich ,glenfarclas and the Aberlour.Did the tasting tour at Aberlour ,it is a very good tour but I am not a huge fan of the whisky.
if you based yourself anywhere in that area ,Dufftown,Craigellachie or Aberlour then you could easily visit a whole host of distilleries from there either walking, using local buses or even a local taxi.We actually took a taxi out to the Tamdhu distillery and walked back along the Speyside way to Aberlour (about 6 miles) had lunch at the wonderful Mash Tunn bar and then did the Aberlour tour,we did intend to walk the further 2 miles back to Craigellachie ,but old age and several whiskies took their toll and we got a local bus back.
There is a Speyside whisky festival starting on the 1st of May
http://www.spiritofspeyside.com/
As to favourite whiskies,hard to say as i love so many of them ,I do like Balvenie,Glenfarclas and Mortlach from Speyside but I really do like the more peated Islay malts .
I very much like Lagavulin and Ardbeg,but each to their own.
I have a Word document that I wrote about whisky,introducing people to how and where it is made and listing the various areas it is made in ,also lists lots of whiskies i have tried and marks the ones that I prefer,though no malt whisky is bad but some I like better than others.
if you have an email addy like a hotmail I could attach it to an email and send it to you.

HappyCheesehead,

Slips. We toured Glenfarclas and Macallan and, with the latter, had a delightful walk through cow pastures and other rural land, inluding a bit of climbing over stiles from one fenced property to another, and watching the salmon fisherman on the banks of the Spey, back to our hotel which was about a quarter of a mile from our hotel from the Aberlour distillery (which we didn't visit, but it has a handsome older fieldstone building). There are a couple of small restaurants in Aberlour. including one in the hotel in the center of this very small town (a convenience store, a hotel in the center of town, a school, a few small stores, the Walker's bakery), so, while there is not much to do in the town itself, we had two or three good meals there including a sampling of Haggis, and our hotel served a very good meal as well.

I concentrated on the train issue and, unless you get a special, you can't get to Aberlour by train. (you can get to Dufftown on an excursion). If you are prepared to use "any" form of public transport, take the plane or bus and ferry to Islay/Jura from Glasgow; and use the bus/Shank's pony/thumb, and you'll get 9 of the best whiskies and distilleries in the country

Shelia does make an very good point about the train.When we did Pitlochry we used the train from Edinburgh,took about 2 hours,and we just walked everywhere,it is about 2.5 miles up to Edradour from the town and the Blair Atholl distillery is just on the edge of the town maybe a 10 minute walk from the centre.
For Speyside you could take the train to Inverness and get a local bus to any of the places mentioned,may take a while but it can be done.When we went to Craigellachie,,we drove from Edinburgh on the Friday morning,parked up at our hotel (Highlander Inn) and didn't touch the car again till monday lunch-time.
Islay is a bit more difficult but with time and planning can be done by public transport,it truely is a great place to visit and the people there are just some of the nicest you will meet anywhere,there is a local bus service and the local taxi service is very good,our host at the B&B even gave us a lift to a couple of places......as for the whisky.............. I'm in Heaven!!!!!!

sheila, mohum and gus and all thanks for the train-whisky trail info. gus i do not have hotmail nut thanks.

Palenque, we loved staying at Craigellachie (sorry, sp), and went to McCallan and several others. The whole countryside smells of whiskey. If you do this, walk a bit on the Spey Trail too.

IT SMELLS OF WHISKY!!!

It's not so hard... WHISKY WHISKY WHISKY!!!

(I'm sorry; it's the sun; it's all getting too much for me; I'm not myself.....)

Palenque if you go to this link on trip advisor you can see it there.it has been edited to bits by several idiots ,but go into the article history section of it and you will see the original article,it is a bit rough around the edges but gives you a good idea on my views on whisky.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-...Of.Whisky.html

Sheila, I knew it was spelled one way in Scotland and the other way in Ireland. DH wasn't around to ask which was which!

My bad. I'm calm now. (I'm drinking!)

Thank you Uncle Gus for that link!