Tomintoul and Glenlivet: The Highlands' First Dark Sky Park

Tomintoul was laid out on a grid by the 4th Duke of Gordon in 1775, and at 345 metres it is billed as the highest village in the Highlands, though Wanlockhead in Dumfries and Galloway, at 466 metres, is the highest in Scotland. It stands by the River Avon inside the Cairngorms National Park, and the country round it is the Glenlivet Estate, 58,000 acres of the Crown Estate. Tomintoul and Glenlivet became the first International Dark Sky Park in the Scottish Highlands in November 2018, with three discovery sites for stargazing — the Tomintoul Field of Hope, the Carrachs in the Braes of Glenlivet and Blairfindy Moor — each with a car park and boards telling you what to look for. The glen was known for illicit whisky until the Excise Act of 1823; the next year George Smith started a licensed distillery on his farm at Upper Drumin, the first in the Livet valley; it moved down the hill to Minmore in 1859 and grew into The Glenlivet, fourteen kilometres from the village.