Whisky River Take My Mind

We spent Wednesday and Thursday in Inverness. It’s right on the River Ness that feeds into the Loch Ness (maybe you’ve heard of it). There was also a battlefield in the town, where the Battle of Culloden took place in 1746. The Scottish people refer to this as the Massacre/Genocide of Culloden though because the English had superior weapons and they also did not take any prisoners (alive) despite more than half of the Highland warriors fleeing/being captured..

We had hoped to have more time to check out Loch Ness & Culloden but we had a tour at Glenfiddich distillery in the Speyside region that was a very extensive tour and did not give us a lot of time to do much else.

Glenfiddich was my favorite tour of all the distilleries we visited and it had a very rich history that was pretty interesting.

Here’s some info on it: (thanks grok)

• William Grant and his nine kids hand-built Glenfiddich in 1886 in Dufftown, Speyside; they opened on Christmas 1887, and it’s still family-run.

• Named “Valley of the Deer” in Gaelic, with a stag logo, nestled by the River Fiddich.

• Single Malt Trailblazer: They launched single malt globally in 1963, sparking a craze; now the world’s top-selling single malt in 180 countries.

• The 15 Year Old Solera whisky uses a never-emptied Solera vat since 1998 for consistent, rich flavor

We went to a few other distilleries throughout the trip (Clydeside, Singleton, Tomatin, and a few others I’m sure I’m forgetting) so between all of those I am a pro on the whisky making (and drinking) process.

We made it into Glasgow today and it definitely has a different vibe to it than Edinburgh and the other smaller towns. It was/is a shipping town so it’s got more of an industrial feel, kind of felt like Houston.

We had been told it would rain the whole time we were here but the weather was great, 50/60° with some sun. However, it finally rained a bit here in Glasgow.

We are headed to the airport around 5AM to catch our flight and will be back in Texas on Saturday at 6PM. Fingers crossed that I can sleep on the plane this time.

It was a great trip but I’m ready to be back in Texas. As my dad did with his blog, I may post here and there - I was thinking mainly my favorite BBQ places or Austin dive bars, but we will see.. I could hardly post on here.