Scotland, Day 13: Tasting at Glendronach, Dinner at The Mash Tun
Our big event for the day wasn’t until later on: a tasting a one of our favorite distilleries, Glendronach.
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Scotland, Day 12: Drams at Strathisla, Tasting at Gordon & MacPhail, Beers at Against the Grain, Dinner at the Drouthy Cobbler
Dram 1: 39 Year Caol Ila (filled 1984 in a Refill American Hogshead, bottled in 2023).
Dram 2: 29 Year Glentauchers (filled 1995 in a First Fill Sherry Butt, bottled in 2024).
Dram 3: 26 Year Dailuaine (filled 1998 in a REfill American Hogshead, bottled in 2024)
Dram 4: 23 Year Macallan (filled 2001, bottled in 2024)
Dram 5: 17 Year Linkwood (filled 2008 in a First Fill Sherry Hogshead, bottled in 2025).
Scotland, Day 11: Tasting at Glen Garioch Distillery, Newburgh Seal Beach, Dinner at Islay House
We got what felt like a very behind the scenes look at the whole process. Of particular note – Glen Garioch only recently returned to floor malting (some more background) – a very manual and labor/time-intensive process.
The smell of the malt was quite incredible – and I really wish I could have taken some photos to share. But I guess you’ll have to go on the tour yourself, if you want to see it.
Scotland, Day 10: Travel to Speyside – Visiting the Highland Coos at Drumbuie Farm, Duffus Castle, Arrival at Islay Bank House, Dinner at Toot’s
Travel day! We left Portree, packed all our things in the car, and are headed to Speyside.
Scotland, Day 9: The Old Man of Storr, Lealt Falls, Constables Coffee Truck, Shilasdair Yarn, Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls, Lunch at the Hungry Gull, Dinner at Three Chimneys
Liz and I started to take shorter and shorter distances. The heights were getting to us, but we felt confident and strong. So we’d pause, gather ourselves, and then decide to go up “a little further,” picking some visual marker.
And then we’d repeat that a few times, and get higher and higher.
Scotland, Day 8: Handspinner Having Fun, the Old Pier, Tasting at Torabhaig Distillery, Walking Along the Carbost Waterfront, Dinner at Old Inn
A really cool thing about Torabhaig – they made it a point to hire locals to work at the distillery. And more than that, also made it a point to hire folks who may not have been directly involved in the whisky industry.
Of particular interest, they have a Journeyman’s Series: a program where they set aside one month each year for their distillers to have free reign of the distillery, to work on their own custom recipes.
Scotland, Day 7: Ferry to Isle of Raasay, Encountering Dolphins, Raasay Distillery, Driving and Sheepspotting, Dinner at Sprig
This looks to be just like a Renaissance painting (if it weren’t for that bit of blue spray paint, dotting the sheep’s butt in the foreground).
Scotland, Day 6: Fairy Glen, Rha Falls, Quiraing Trail, the Gold Cave, An Corran Beach
A lovely view from Portree (this is a row of houses, on a lower street – not actually of the downtown area).
Scotland, Day 5: Fort William, Ben Nevis, Lunch at Cluanie Inn, Chocolates of Glenshiel, Eilean Donan Castle, Arriving in Portree (Isle of Skye), Bosville Hotel
Travel day today – we’re on the road for just about 3 hours (125 miles), going from Glencoe to Portree (Isle of Skye). A lot of it was highway driving, A82 – A87.
Scotland, Day 4: Breakfast at Moss, the Meeting of Three Waters, the Wee Midgie Honesty Box, Home and Hot Tub
Back around Glencoe Valley, we were exploring a few different spots. Liz had a place in mind, and was trying to track it down.
We eventually found it: the Meeting of Three Waters. There wasn’t a ton of easy parking, but we found some spots, hopped a small fence, and hiked our way up to several small pools/rivers.
Scotland, Day 3: Acrophobia Along the Hidden Valley Trail, Lunch at Kingshouse Hotel, Driving Glen Etive Road
We’d stopped here briefly, during our last visit to Scotland. But the weather was rough, and we didn’t walk all that far.
This time though – we were heading further, with more to traverse (some bridges, as well as a rock scramble).
Scotland, Day 2: Breakfast at Cafe Wander, Good Spirits Company, Falls of Falloch, Shopping at Green Welly, Settling in at Glencoe House
En route to Glencoe, stopping off at the Falls of Falloch.
Scotland, Day 1: Driving to Glasgow, Suite Upgrade at Native, Dinner at Margo
Our hotel this time around was in downtown Glasgow, at Native. I dropped off Liz and our luggage, and left her to check in while I parked the car in a nearby garage.
On arriving, I learned that we had been upgraded – and were now in one of the suites on the top floor.
Chicago to Scotland: Travel Day
It’s the big travel day! We have a late night flight that leaves O’Hare, so we both ended up working a full day. But then got the house all packed up, got the water line shut off, the lights on timers, and reset the AC for vacation mode.
As is tradition, we paused for a small dram to kick off the departure.
Scotland!
Excited for so many things: distilleries, coos, driving on the wrong side of the road. I’ll be updating photos afterwards, but for now… maybe look back on photos from our first trip, way back when.