Scotland, Day 10: GlenDronach Distillery, a Late Dinner Panic, Arriving at Burnroy House in Archiestown

We’re leaving Inverness today, and started off the morning with a spot of breakfast at Rendezvous Cafe.

We started to see a lot of options for Flat Whites, which were a nice alternative to Americanos. My preference is still for a Cortado, which I was delighted to find available at this cafe. Interesting note: on the menu, it was spelled “Cordato.”

A warning sign for the squirrels. A testament to how infrequently cars pass by, or how “slow” slow the squirrels might actually be.

Through our time in Speyside, we found a lot of birds and animals a bit oblivious to the danger of cars, and would just kind of hang out on the shoulder of roads as we drove (dangerously close) by.

Driving down small Scottish roads continues to bring immeasurable joy.

Outside GlenDronach Distillery. We were so taken with the dram we had last night, we wanted to make sure we stopped here on our way to our next destination.

At several points in our driving, we saw trees that were sheared down by the large trucks (lorries) that passed by. We first noticed this outside Oban, where some roads contained trees that looked like they were sculpted with an inverted “L,” due to trucks driving by.

It’s somewhat hard to see, but keep an eye out for the trees on the right:

Liz, attempting to commune with the sheep… but they were way too skittish. She kept a few pieces of toast in the car, just for situations like this… but as soon as she got near, they all bolted away.

One of many fields we passed by. I say again without hyperbole, if I stopped every time I wanted to take a photo… we would have never gotten very far.

In Craigellachie, looking around for a place to grab some dinner. We had plans to stop at the Highlander Inn (another top whisky bar on Liz’s list).

While all the research showed it was a “first come, first served” process… they were quite full, and were taking bookings (reservations to us Yanks). Sadly, they were too busy for us to even stop in for a dram… so we had to go looking elsewhere.

We called a few nearby restaurants (including some we already had reservations for). Every place we tried was full up, no openings, and too busy to even provide takeaway. With the evening started to take over, we began to get a little concerned – almost every place we called was at capacity.

Liz was really great about making reservations ahead of time. Partly out of planning, and partly due to Covid (many places had reduced seating and staff, so booking ahead of time was imperative).

At my request, we left things a bit looser in Speyside. Which resulted in a bit of a scramble, on our first night, to find dinner.

We ended up having two options: a Chinese takeout spot or an Indian restaurant, both located in Dufftown (let’s hear it for the immigrants). As much as I wanted to try out Scotland’s take on Chinese food, we ended up going to Spice of India because we could dine-in instead of takeaway.

On arriving, we were tickled to find that both options were next to one another.

Our room at Burnroy House

Related:
Scotland, Day 1: Driving to Glasgow, Dinner at The Butchershop
Scotland, Day 2: Auchentoshan Distillery, Kelvingrove Park, Dinner at Fanny Trollopes and Bon Accord
Scotland, Day 3: Glasgow Necropolis, Glasgow Cathedral, Tasting at Glen Goyne Distillery, Dinner at Stravaigin
Scotland, Day 4: Island Hopping to Isle of Arran, Lochranza Distillery, Isle of Islay, Late Arrival at Islay House
Scotland, Day 5: Bunnahabhain Distillery, Lagavulin Distillery, Dinner at Islay House
Scotland, Day 6: Bowmore Distillery, Bruichladdich Distillery, Isle of Jura, Jura Distillery
Scotland, Day 7: Travel Day, Dunchraigaig Cairn, Oban Distillery, Whisky Vaults
Scotland, Day 8: Travel to Inverness, Glencoe Valley, Loch Ness, Moments of Indecision, Drinks at the Malt Room
Scotland, Day 9: Victorian Market, Clava Cairns, Old High St. Steven’s, Malt Room Revisited

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