Scotch: From the 1494 Record to Speyside

Editor's note

Forth House sits on the coast near Upper Largo in east Fife, and two nights there reach both ends of the story. At Newburgh on the Firth of Tay, Lindores Abbey Distillery has made spirit since 2017, directly opposite the ruins where a distillation vat was found in 2018; its History Tours take in the abbey. The 1494 exchequer roll recording eight bolls of malt given to Friar John Cor to make aqua vitae is the first written record of whisky in Scotland, and Lindores claims him, though the roll does not say where he lived. Kingsbarns opened in 2014 in a restored 18th-century farm steading and grows its barley on the surrounding farms; the Fife Coastal Path passes the village and Cambo's walled garden lies next door.

Editor's note

One night at Blanefield, on the Glasgow road out towards Dumgoyne. Glengoyne has been distilling at Dumgoyne since 1833, when it was called Burnfoot, and it stands exactly on the Highland Line: the stills are in the Highlands and the casks mature across the road in the Lowlands, so it makes a Highland malt matured in the Lowlands. From the distillery side of the A81 you can look across at the warehouses and work out which side of the line each building stands on. A path beside the distillery climbs Dumgoyne, the 427-metre volcanic plug at the end of the Campsie Fells, and from the top Glasgow and the Lowlands lie behind you.

Editor's note

The drive north is 191 km and more than two and a half hours, ending at Invernahavon Caravan Park, near Newtonmore, for one night. Dalwhinnie — Dail Chuinnidh, the meeting place — sits at the head of Glen Truim at the north end of Loch Ericht, where a track follows the shore, and at an average of 6.6°C it is one of the coldest villages in the UK. Its distillery was built in 1897 as the Strathspey Distillery, between the Great North Road and the Highland Railway; at 355 metres it is one of the highest in Scotland, and it joined the six Classic Malts in the late 1980s. Just south, the A9 crosses the Pass of Drumochter at 460 metres, its highest point.

Editor's note

Two nights at Speyside Gardens Caravan Park in Aberlour, in the middle of the region that holds more malt distilleries than anywhere else in Scotland. Glenfiddich, at Dufftown, ran its first spirit on Christmas Day 1887, after William Grant founded it. At Craigellachie the Speyside Cooperage repairs casks by hand, and the coopers work in front of visitors. The Malt Whisky Trail links seven of the working distilleries, the Dallas Dhu museum and the cooperage, which gives the two days a shape: a distillery in the morning, the cooperage or a second distillery after it. This is the stop where the trade itself, and not only the spirit, is on show.

Editor's note

The last leg runs 135 km and over two hours, ending at Cromarty Camping for one night, with Tain 19 km on. Tain received its first royal charter from Malcolm III in 1066, making it Scotland's oldest royal burgh: a sanctuary under the protection of the church, built round the shrine of St Duthac, which by the late Middle Ages was one of the great pilgrimages of Scotland — James IV came at least once a year throughout his reign. St Duthus Collegiate Church was the heart of it, and the Tain & District Museum and Clan Ross Centre opens from April to October. Outside the town, William Matheson turned the Morangie brewery into Glenmorangie in 1843 with two second-hand gin stills; it has the tallest stills in Scotland.