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Dedications for Scribe Weekly Radio
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The Moray Coast By Steve Boyle If you’re looking for a holiday location that offers long sandy beaches, historic castles and battlefields, walking and climbing and great visitor attractions then the Moray coast is just what you’re looking for.The Moray coast runs eastwards from Inverness. There is a wide variety of accommodation to suit every budget and taste. Sitting in the shadow of the Cairn Gorms the weather is often warm and dry. The area was known as the Rivera of the north because of its mild summer climate. We stayed on a cottage on a family run mixed farm on the edge of the Cawdor estate near Auldearn which is a couple of miles east of Nairn. Details here The cottage was well fitted out and as described in the brochure. There were a couple of 2 mile walks around the farm which made for a pleasant evening stroll. The farmer himself offered a guided tour of the farm and answered questions. Cardhu Distilery There really is a lot to do in the area and no visit would be complete without a visit to a distillery and there are many to choose from. The Macallan has long been my favourite single malt and so we headed through Elgin and inland to Craigelachie sadly although the visitor centre was open the tour was not available as they were in their “six week quiet period” when no distilling takes place. Our fault not theirs we should have phoned ahead. There was a video to watch and staff were on hand to answer any questions. Visitors were also invited to sample the product which of course we did. So we set of in search of another distillery to tour and stumbled across the Carhduh at Knockando. Cardhu is the malt at the heart of the Johnnie Walker blends. And like JW is owned by drinks giant Diageo. Globalization can be seen here on Speyside as very few family run distilleries remain. One of the first surprises was that the tour is not free as traditionally they had been in the past. One gets the distinct impression that the men in grey suits have been busy. Having said that the £4.00 fee only applies to adults over the UK drinking age of 18 and children are welcome on the tour. Your Ticket does entitle you to a £3.00 discount off a bottle in the shop. The young lady who conducted the tour was knowledgeable about the process and was able to answer our questions. As you move from process to process you may notice that there are very few people to be seen. We actually only saw one worker in the whole building. The reason is that at any one time the whole process can be run by one person. Such is the level of automation that only about seven staff are required to run a 24 hour operation. In fact there are probably as many staff involved in the visitor side of the operation as in the production. A sobering thought next time you enjoy a dram of Carhhu how many other premium products could have been produced with so few staff. Scotch Malt Whisky [ this section from guided tour with help from http://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk ] is made from malted barley, water and yeast. The first stage of production is the malting of the barley. The barley is steeped in water for 2 to 3 days before being spread out on the floor of the malting house to germinate. To arrest germination, the malted barley is dried in a kiln, identifiable by the distinct pagoda-shaped chimneys, characteristic of every distillery. Peat, a natural fuel cut from the moors of Scotland, is used to fire kilns in the drying process, along with more modern fuels. Smoke from the fire drifts gently upwards through a wire mesh floor to dry out the barley, and the "peat reek" imparts a distinctive aroma which contributes to the character of the final spirit the amount of peat varies from area to area The Island distilleries such as those found on Islay tend to use more hence their stronger peaty aroma and taste.. When dried, the malt is as crisp as toast. This process is no longer carried out at Cardhu and is done elsewhere in the group.
The malted barley is then ground to a rough-hewn grist and mixed with hot water in a vessel known as a mash tun. This process converts the starch in the barley into a sugary liquid known as wort. The wort is transferred to a fermenting vat, or washback, where yeast is added and the fermentation process converts the sugary wort into crude alcohol, similar in aroma and taste to sour beer. This is known as wash. It’s interesting to note that waste from this process and from some of the distillation process are taken away to be recycled as cattle food. The cattle on Speyside must be some of the happiest in Scotland. Now comes the crucial process involving the distinctive
swan-necked copper pot stills, where distillation separates the alcohol from
the wash. Malt whisky is distilled twice, the first distillation taking
place in a larger wash still, and the second in a slightly smaller low-wines
or spirit still. The stillman raises the
The next process takes time for the whisky must be left
to mature in wooden casks. Scotch Whiskey is never put in to new casks
instead previously used sherry or bourbon casks are used. Only after a
minimum of three years maturation can the new make spirit be legally defined
as Scotch Whisky. In practice, most After the tour there is the chance to sample some of the product in the tranquil setting of a warehouse of sleeping whiskey. The tour concludes in the shop where you can buy a distinctive square dimpled bottle of the Cardhu or other malts from the extensive range of other group distilleries , some of them no longer in production or existence. So a good chance for the collector to acquire some very rare malts at a reasonable price. What you can’t buy is a load of tat which bears no relationship to the attraction you are visiting and that as you will see later is just fine by me. The return trip via Grantown On Spey to Nairn completed a very satisfying day out.
Cairn Gorm Mountain Railway. Our next trip took us down to the Cairn Gorms and close to the summit of Cairn Gorm itself. We headed back down to Grantown and then on to Avimore and the Cairn Gorms .The Cairn Gorm Funicular Railway is a relatively new investment designed to carry skiers in comfort in the season and sight seers in the summer. The project has been the subject of much heated debate in Scotland mainly due to environmental issues which are far to complex to get into here. Suffice to say it has been built at a cost of £15 million for a 2k line. £5 million alone has gone on the construction of a tunnel and underground station at the top of the line. This has been done to ensure that the skyline remains uncluttered and as natural looking as possible. The train leaves from the main Cairn Gorm car park where chairlifts in the season also leave. The car park itself is already a fair way up the mountain. One of the main things to know is that you are not
permitted to leave the Ptarmigan centre at the top and walk in the high
peaks. If you walk from the car park however then you can pretty much do as
you please. This is for environmental reasons as obviously many more people
will take the train the top than will walk. Some leaflets in circulation
make great play on the fact that there are walks available what they neglect
to The actual logistics of it all the operation is very
professional and well organised and there is definitely something special
about the journey up one of Britain’s highest mountains. At the top you
arrive through Now I’ve seen a few of these interruptive centres in my
time you can’t have a visitor attraction these days without one. There must
be a company out there making a fortune designing interruptive centres for
EEC funded projects. Well this one it is fair to say is one of the worst
I’ve ever seen. Sure there are a few
Lastly and by every means least we have the tat shop and some wonderful tat there is to. Quite why anyone should think I’m going to pay £18.50 for a baseball cap at the top of a mountain is quite beyond me. Similarly why would I want a boxed set of marbles at £14.50 Perhaps I could roll them down the mountain: oh I forgot I’m not allowed out on the hill am I ?. And if I am the type of person who has taken the train up here am I really going to fork out close to £8.00 on an ordnance survey map. Seriously these things do my head right in. The family it has to be said love them give them a tat shop and keep them amused for hours. If you want to experience one of Britain’s highest mountains and you have a young family or don’t for whatever reason have the puff or get up and go to get up under your own steam then the mountain railway could be well worth a visit. Just make sure you go on a good day and if you only have two children complain bitterly. A return trip via Inverness makes for a full day out.
Cawdor Castle I must admit I enjoy visiting historical sites and the
Moray coast is packed with them. You shouldn’t miss a visit to the site of
the battle of Culloden which lies a few miles east of Inverness. It’s fair
to say that Britain and the World would be a very different place today had
the Jacobites been victorious. Wijkie one of our regular contributors has an
excellent article on Culloden
and of the fate of
Lord Murray one of the Since we had previously been to both of these places we
decided to add Cawdor Castle to the list.
Cawdor sits close to Nairn and is well signposted from the A96. The
Castle dates back to the 14th century and has links with
Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Much has been changed over the years yet it all seems
part of an original design. The property is smaller and more intimate than
many other ancestral homes which are open to the public. Lovers of antique
furniture and tapestries will be in seventh heaven. The property is still
home to the cawdor family to this day. There are good room descriptions as
you go round but perhaps a bit too much attention has been focused on the
history of the family rather than the history of the house. There is the
We only had five days this time but there is so much more to see and do from long sandy beaches to lovely costal drives through the quiet little fishing villages for more information visit The Highlands and Islands Tourist site [ HOST] The Aberdeen and Grampian tourist Board Photos by Steve & Colin Boyle
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temperature
within the wash still and gradually, the fermented liquid is heated and the
alcohol in the wash vaporises. The vapours rise up the swan neck and pass
over the head of the still, before being guided through condensers where
they revert to liquid. This liquid is collected in a receiver before being
passed into the second low-wines or spirit still where the process is
repeated. The stillman exercises much more control in the second
distillation as only the heart, or "middle cut", of the spirit flow will be
collected as new spirit. This takes place as the spirit flows through a
spirit safe, where the stillman can observe, assess and measure it.The first
runnings from the still (foreshots) and tails (feints) are returned for
redistillation with the next batch of low wines. The "middle cut" is
collected by the stillman, only when he is personally satisfied that it has
reached a high enough standard.
Scotch Whisky matures for much longer - from five to fifteen, twenty, or
twenty-five years and sometimes longer. It is this lingering period during
which Scotland’s cool, clean air steals through the porous oak of the casks
and charms their contents, contributing further to the smooth and golden
character of each distillery’s unique creation. A proportion of the whisky
in each cask evaporates annually and is lost to the heavens. This is known
as the "angels’ share". Over the 12 year maturing of the Cardhu this amounts
to approximately 25%.
mention
is that they are from the car park and not from the top. To be fair it does
say on the back of the ticket that there is no access to the hill from the
top but how many people read the back of tickets. They also announce it on
the train when you’re well under way but by then it’s too late if there has
been a genuine misunderstanding and on our trip I saw one or two shocked
faces. A few large notices by the ticket office wouldn’t go astray. So it’s
important that you realise your paying for a ride to close to the top of
Cairn Gorm with the possibility of a stunning view when you get there. I say
possibility because at 1097m there is every chance that the cloud will be
low enough to obscure the view. That said you must then judge for your self
weather the cost of £7.50 for adults and £5.00 for children is value for
money. There is a family ticket available which costs £25.00 and cover 2
adults and two children which remarkably adds up to the same price as if the
tickets were purchased singly. The benefit is that a third child can travel
free. This is a racket that is gaining in popularity. 
the aforementioned tunnel at Britain’s Highest underground [or over ground
come to that] station. Which serves the Ptarmigan centre. You can see the
thinking behind this building: we’ve got all these punters up here what are
we going to do with them? I’ve got it lets build a interruptive centre, a
tat shop and a café.
geology
and climate exhibits there’s even a nice comparative exhibit on ski
equipment that they might have used in the twenties compared to today. But
when it comes right down to it there’s not enough to get your teeth in to.
Something you certainly can’t say about the Café with its excellent views.
Here there is lots to get your teeth in to the trouble is everyone is
queuing for the soup. The reason for this is probably because we fully
expect to be ripped off in places like this and the soup is the only thing
which anyone can see the price of. Having said that as these places go it
doesn’t to bad in the price stakes. If the views from the café are great
then from outside on the terrace it’s something else again. Absolutely
stunning it’s seriously good and then some believe me. 
Princes generals. Nearby is
usual
café and tat shop and again some world class tat is in evidence. There are
extensive well maintained gardens and a large holly maze. Be warned this is
not open to the public as holly roots are not very robust. There are also
several walks and a nine hole golf course. Admission is £6.10 for adults and
£3.30 for children a family ticket will set you back £18.00 but you do get
up to five children included in that price. Sorry there are no photographs
of the interior but they go for the no photographs rule here. I can
understand the banning of flash photography but non flash do me a favour and
grow up. The way I see it if my family are going fork out £18.00 to keep
your family and its home afloat then a few photos should be part of the
deal.