This week after arriving back on the Mainland from Isle of Skye, where we visited a lovely pub, a traditional distillery in the Speyside region, and found a few bagpipe bands. We had a few days on the Mainland before hopping on another ferry to Orkney where we attempted to find Puffins and learned a bit about the people of the island.
A Wee Bit of Whiskey
After the hike to the Old Man of Storr, we had a few hours drive to the “Wee Campsite” in the town of Lochcarron. The owner told us about a pub a short walk away, saying there’s “great people on both sides of the bar”. We split mac and cheese, curry cheese chips (aka fries) and had a few pints.
Our host described it right, they were several of the patrons greeting each other like old friends, two guys playing chess through several rounds of drinks, dogs sitting at chairs at the bar, and a really nice couple making drinks. It really made me miss my happy hour crew I used to meet up with on Fridays, shout out to any of you reading this!
As we left I had to deal with some of the more crazy one lane roads because they were rougher, the passing places not as well marked, and off the edges were some steep potholes. There were several sharp corners and tunnels so it was a bit nerve wracking. Eventually we made it to larger roads and came through Inverness, which had at least 15 roundabouts, phew! Thankfully I had something I was looking forward to at the end of the drive, our first full distillery tour!
We had heard about the Benriach distillery from one of our favorite travel vloggers and decided to pop over to the Speyside region which is home to some of the biggest names in Scotch that you can find in the US. After some lunch in the van it was time for our tour. Our guide was excellent because she was so excited to share her knowledge and always interested to learn more. Those that love their subject definitely make for the best tour guides!
If you are unfamiliar with the process, Scottish Whiskey starts with just 4 ingredients: Barley, Yeast, Water, and Time. When the barley is malted, sometimes peat is used as the fuel which creates that smoky flavor, but not all Scotch is peated. Next the malt is ground to create a grist which is not ground completely to powder, some of the husks are still visible and each distillery can have a different recipe for what percent is the fine powder. The next step is a wash where about 3-4 batches of water at increasing temperatures (from about 60-90C) are poured into the Grist and filtered to try and catch as much sugar from the grist as possible. This is called the wash, and once it is cooled to about room temperature yeast is added and it is left to ferment for a few days. Whenever we toured a distillery (I’ll talk about two more next week) I really enjoyed going into this room, smells just like brewing beer. *Cue deep breath* There’s something about the smell of fermenting grains.
There are several ways a distillery can change the flavor of the final product, the grinding of grist, malting fuel, water temperatures, barrels, barley and water sources, etc., but all of these can be changed from one run to the next. One thing that is different between every distillery but is likely never changed is the shape of the still. The width, neck shape, height, and angle for the pipe at the top can all affect the flavor, as it changes how easy it is to escape out the top and how often the molecules would hit the copper, which facilitates several chemical reactions.
Benriach was originally opened in the 1800s but had closed down for about 60 years. Because they had a malting room that kept them in business and it eventually reopened as a full distillery. After a tour in the barrel room (which we couldn’t take pictures inside) we got to the best bit, the tasting! This one was fun because at the end it had us make a cocktail! One thing I really enjoyed about Scotland is since they have a zero tolerance drinking & driving policy, they had “drivers bottles” available for drivers, so I could enjoy the whiskeys once we got to our place for the evening. This is really something I wish existed in the US!
That night we had reserved a spot at a farm nearby thanks to the Brit Stops membership. The farm mainly raises sheep and goats for wool and meat, but they also had 3 alpaca for wool and several hens for eggs.
They hosted a 24/7 farm shop with an automated system to buy baked goods, eggs, milk, bacon, sausages etc. and a freezer section that had some of their meats. Some of the items were from other farms nearby like the bacon since they didn’t have pigs but it was really a cool idea! They also had an automated coffee machine you could pay for that was really reasonable, and way tastier than making it in the van. We got an apple pie, bacon, some flavored milk, and a few mini ice cream tubs.
It was fun getting to park by the fence to the llamas and sheep, and apparently at about 8:30 the lambs got a bit of the zoomies. That rock pile in the background in the picture and a closer small dirt mound became two different “king of the hill” games. All the lambs would run to one hill as one of them stood on top and others would butt heads to take over, then run to the other as another tried to stand on top. It was good entertainment for the evening!
Sounds of the Tartan
At our distillery tour, one of the head distillers told our tour guide “good luck tomorrow”, so we asked and she was competing in a bagpipe band competition the following day. Since our path took us right through the town the following morning we decided to stop by and check it out.
We got there early for the sake of parking, and as we knew we couldn’t stay all day. When we bought our ticket at 9am there were at least 15 coaches parked already. Most of the bands at this time were from schools, some of the kids looked really young. They all had the traditional outfits and the announcer would say where they’re from, the name of the pipe master, the 4 songs they were going to play and the type of tartan they were wearing. To identify the 4 songs you had to pay attention since they would go straight from one into the next one and you’d mostly just notice the sudden change in tempo.
There were at least 4-5 pipes and 4-5 snare drums in each band with 1 bass drum. Sometimes there would be several playing normal drums but they would less so play it than have a routine with colored and soft mallets they would spin around their hands, it looked like it had a loop around their hand that helped them spin. There were some community groups going at the same time and some groups looked to have ages from 14 to 65 or even older, which is so awesome to see. It really made me miss playing in a band.
We spent our morning walking between the 4 arenas for the band and one set aside for drum majors throwing their maces, eating our way through several food stalls for breakfast, snack, lunch and dessert items until we decided to leave around 1pm. We had a 3 hour drive up the coast to John O’Groats, the northern most point on the mainland of UK. We made it up there and decided to make a call to family since the internet was so good (which was a first!) at our campsite.
We walked into the end of the road bar and brewery and they had a delicious oatmeal stout on cask. We also visited the distillery which mostly does a blended whiskey but they had tasty cocktails and snacks. We relaxed for the evening and did a few chores to be ready for a few days on a new Island!
A Bumpy Ride
Our ferry to Orkney was at noon the next day and we had about a 45 minute drive, but you had to check in early. We left in plenty of time to stop by a grocery store to stock up and then parked near the check-in until it opened at 10:30am. We got on the ferry and I had reserved spots in the magnus lounge, where we’d have seats, snacks and NA drinks like coffee, pop, etc for free and you’d get either an alcoholic drink or a bacon/sausage roll which was our lunch. Since it only cost about 7 pounds with everything we drank and the roll we probably came out ahead.
This ferry route was more exposed than the one in the Hebrides and boy was it rolling! We saw so many big splashes and walking around made you either feel like you were drunk or a toddler I was wobbling so much! I made the mistake of going into the bathroom and taking my eyes off the horizon because my stomach wasn’t too happy for a bit. Thankfully it’s only a 2 hour crossing and we eventually made it into the port of Stromness.
Mr. Wander had found a spot for us to park for the night near the Brough of Birsay, which is an island you can access only at low tide via a causeway that has been made. It wasn’t quite low enough when we got there so we took a walk along the coast to another spot that was on the map, then decided to make a loop into the little town to visit the palace ruins from the Earl of Orkney, who was brother to Mary Queen of Scots.
We found an honesty box and had to get some brownies, they actually had a card reader so we didn’t have to have exact change! How cool! They had some free toilets to use and an interesting church, and then we walked back to our van. The parking lot was overflowing already and the tide had just reached low enough so we could cross.
There is an old norse village from around 800AD built on top of a Pictish viliage from about the year 600 or so. We wandered up the hill to the lighthouse to get nice views all around! We didn’t realize at the time but this was one of the better spots we could have seen puffins!
We walked back across and then got into the van to warm up a bit. Then we made ourselves some dinner and people watched everyone coming in and out for the causeway. There were a few people in tents that joined us for the night and one person sleeping in the back of their car. It was so cold even in our van that those in tents packed up into their car pretty early in the morning.
Pursuing Puffins
After some breakfast we made our way towards Kirkwell. We found a spot to park on the edge of town and walked down to a really delicious bakery and explored St. Magnus’s church.
Then we walked back up to the van and continued the drive through the island. Before heading to our spot for the night we of course had to visit a place called “the gloop”.
The sign said it was likely caused by erosion and perhaps a blowhole that eventually eroded to this crevice that does have a small opening where a kayak could get in. We had to cross a few causeways to our spot for the night, a cute farm called the Wild Orcadian.
They had a really eclectic kitchen area I wish I would have taken pictures of, and a farm shop. There was also a farm cat hanging out in the kitchen/dining area that was quite friendly. It was pretty chilly so we took advantage of the free electricity to run the electric heater.
The next day we worked our way back and stopped at a rum distillery, which was surprising to see so outside the Caribbean! They import molasses since it is not the climate to grow sugarcane but they did their own casking. They also had some local fruit wines. Mr. Wander had a few tastes as it is a zero tolerance country, so instead I looked around the shop and was tempted to buy a knitting kit for a hat I really liked. As I only had about a week or so left of cold weather, it wasn’t really worth it to take up the space in the suitcase. Nor do I know how to knit…yet.
We worked our way back across the island to different stops but were getting a bit frustrated by the number of buses! We went to the well known standing stones, but just Mr. Wander got out because I was getting a bit stressed with some of the driving.
We next tried to get to this cairn, but the parking lot near by was closed and was for drop off/pickup only so we drove to the visitors center about a mile or two away. There was zero room for our van and the streets were already narrow in the tiny village. We drove back because we saw this layby close enough to walk ourselves but on the gate the QR code on said you required a ticket and guide to let you into the site. Very frustrating.
Next we headed over to this cliff which is supposed to be good for puffins and was pretty close to the Brough of Birsay we stayed at the first night. We did a hike up to the Kitchener Memorial, in memory of a ship sunk during WWII, and walked around the cliffs to look at the birds. Unfortunately, we saw no puffins, but there were these razorbills that kinda acted a bit puffin-like the way their wings flapped and they waddled on the cliffside.
We left at the right time because coming back up the hill was a whole busload of people! I still don’t know how or where that bus turned around on this small one lane road with some sharp curves as it wound its way around farmhouses and sheep pens. If you are wondering where these busses come from, both times we drove through Kirkwell we saw a different cruise ship parked at the port. It sounds like some of the locals have mixed feelings about the giant ships docking, clogging up the sites and small roads with these big ships that probably don’t support the local economy too much.
Fireside Stories
We had booked fireside stories that evening so we decided to go back to that parking lot at the Brough of Birsay and cook some dinner. We did some more people watching as the tide was low again and then at 7:30 or so we drove to this woman’s house where she hosted 14 of us for stories.
It was really interesting because she had learned some of her stories from older people when she was young and they had learned the oral histories from their parents and grandparents. The stories had a bit of rhythm to them at times and she alternated between narrating and acting them out. Most of the stories had some element of fantasy to them, such as mermaids or a paradise found by sailors while lost in the fog.
It was a very pleasant evening and I just wish we did this the first night since we had learned about places to go! We just added it to the list for next time, especially when we go visit Shetland. There were so many places we missed on Orkey because of the large van or just being busy that we need to come back! After it was finished at 10pm we drove ourselves through dusk to Stromness. We parked at the harborside parking lot for a bit of sleep before we checked in early the next morning for the ferry back to the mainland.
Next Time
Since I just about had my fill of sketchy one lane roads with this large vehicle, we decided not to complete the full North Coast (NC) 500 trip and instead made it back to Speyside for more distilleries. Our last few days in the van we visited some canals, watched a really cool aqueduct elevator, and you’ll have to wait until next week to find out if we found Nessie! Cheers!