Day 16 - Pitlochry to Loch Ness

In the morning, Mary greeted us downstairs for breakfast. Even though we had said, “Just a small portion please,” she still made us a big breakfast. The fresh berries were wonderful though. I could have had just that and been perfectly happy. After breakfast we thanked Mary for her kindness and hospitality and were on our way by 9:30am.

By 9:45am we arrived at the Edradour Whiskey Distillery. It is the smallest distillery in Scotland and still does everything by hand. Nothing is automated. The only thing they no longer do onsite is malting the barley. That is done offsite were they have exact control over the temperature during the barley’s malting process. At 10am, the gates opened before us just like in the scene from Willy Wonka…only it was now adults walking into a place of magical wonder. 

By 10:15 I was drinking my first of 4 whiskey samples. It was a 10 year old whiskey called “The Distillery Edition” and was wonderful. Matt tried a Scottish Cream Liqueur (like Bailey’s) and although I stick with clear liquids, it was rather nice. The third tasting was a 12 year Barolo Cask Matured Highland Single Malt Limited Edition and I loved it. Fortunately, Matt was not a fan of it and I got his sample too! Fourth sample was a Ballechin Heavy Peated Single Malt 10 year old whiskey, meaning the barley is dried after being malted with heavy peat smoke. I normally don’t like smoked Scottish whisky, but this one was the first I could say I liked. It was definitely not something I could drink every evening and the peat flavor that hit your taste buds after swallowing was very pronounced. Matt really liked it.

The tour of the distillery was great and it is all family owned and operated. It takes them a full year to produce the amount of whisky that the Jameson’s Distillery can produce in less than 1 week. They export a very small amount, but since they make such a small amount it is considered rare to find outside of Scotland. We spent 2 hours at the distillery. It was the best way to spend a morning in Scotland!

Next stop Urquhart Castle and Loch Ness! GPS said it should take 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there from the distillery, but with the weather it took 4 hours. We did make a quick stop in a tiny town in the Cairngorms National Park that was on the way to Loch Ness. We stopped at a chipper. The cook/owner was missing his 4 top and 4 bottom front teeth. How do you lose that many teeth? With no teeth and a think Scottish accent, I had no idea what he was asking us, so I just ordered a macaroni pie for take-away thinking it was the safest thing to order. I would not say that I enjoyed it, but at least I was not sick 6 hours later.

The first site of Loch Ness felt more like a reality check that we had actually made it The weather had been brutal, but when the lake came into view, the blue sky came with it. We followed along the lakeshore towards Urquhart Castle. On the way we passed a few tourist spots banking on Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster. The parking lots were filled with tour busses. No need for us to stop at The Loch Ness Monster Exhibition & Museum. Pass.

Urquhart Castle sat on a picturesque outcropping overlooking Loch Ness. For a brief 90 minutes, we had a perfect day of postcard worthy weather. It really was dramatic even though what is left of the castle is only an empty shell. The strong hold here dates back to the 500s. Its final destruction occurred in 1692 after its English owner blew it up to keep the Jacobites from taking it. It had been the largest medieval castle in Scotland and the most important one in the highlands. We climbed all over the castle and up into the Grant Tower.

After storming the castle, we went to check out our B&B. We were greeted by Harriet, the owner’s 10 year old daughter. She was absolutely delightful. In addition to doing a very thorough job of explaining the B&B and surrounding area, she was engaging, smart and charming. She should be running the B&B (I’m sure she would have handled the situation to come in the morning much better than her mother did). The outside of the place looked nice and its online ratings were good. So, I was very surprised by the extremely small dormitory style room with tired bedding. It was so small that with our backpacks on the ground, we could barely get to the add-on make shift bathroom. There was also a binder listing all the house and bedroom rules followed by 5 pages of satellite TV channels that were meant to dazzle us. The TV itself looked like it was to old to accept any type of signal. We don’t watch TV while traveling, but Harriet was very proud of all the channels.

I chose the B&B because of its location to the castle. It boasts of a lovely 1 hour walk along the lake to the castle. Actually, there are no paths along the lake because there is an ordinance stating that nothing is to be built along the lake’s edge (Fort Augustus at the end of the lake is the only exception). You can walk to the castle but it is along a heavily trafficked road. With the lake walk idea nixed, we started walking down the lane from the B&B towards the village center. However, the black clouds overhead were moving in fast. We turned around and within 6 minutes the sky was black and a torrential downpour ensued.

There was not much in the village and we could not walk around in the rain, so we decided to drive along Loch Ness. It’s a 30-minute drive just down one side of the lake to Fort Augustus. Loch Ness is the largest lake in Scotland and when the storm rolled off and the sun came out it was stunning. We arrived in Fort Augustus without a plan, but it turned out to be a perfect side trip. Fort Augustus is where the Caledonian Canal ends. The Caledonian Canal was constructed in 1804. This 60 mile long 110 feet wide ship canal across Scotland goes from the Irish Sea to Loch Ness. There are 28 locks along the way. In addition to it being a small engineering marvel, the locks were also beautiful and the sounds of cascading water gave the town a very special sound. We found a little place for dinner and afterwards walked along the lake’s shore. I really wish I would have booked us a room in Fort Augustus instead. It was so cute. I was bummed to return to our dorm room style B&B that cost 70pound ($105).