May 30, 2025 - Today Jeanene booked us three whisky tours, Glen Grant, Glen Moray and Chivas. The first tour was supposed to be a 1 hour tour, but our guide was so thorough and full of information that it went for 2 hours. The other 2 tours were good, and it was nice to see the differences between larger and smaller distilleries, but there were a lot of similarities too. All three distilleries were in the area called Speyside which was about 45 minutes from Inverness. We got home late and it was a Friday night so it was a little hard to find someplace for dinner. We ended up at Coyotes which was a burger spot.
Our B&B provides breakfast options that we pick the night before. I went for the Scottish breakfast, with sausage, "bacon" (otherwise known as ham), hash browns, mushrooms and eggs (and we also had a spread of various things to pick from-yogurt, fresh fruit, pastries, and juices). It was a lot of breakfast.
Our first tour was Glen Grant. We first entered the Milling room where barley germinates and then the malt is run through the milling machine (no pictures allowed in the milling room for fear of fire) . Next was the Mashing Room where the malted barley is mixed with hot spring water and left to produce sugary wort.
The Fermentation Room was next, where yeast is added.
The distillation room
copper stills
The spirit & sample safe that splits the head, heart and tail of the distillation
Our taste testing. We got to try some varieties of Glen Grant Scotch Whiskys, one being 18 years old ($150/bottle)
Grant who founded the distillery
Really wonderful, intimate tour!
beautiful scenery on our way to our next tour (lots of sheep)
We saw the Porteus Milling machine at all 3 distilleries. The Porteus milling machine is so well made and so rarely needs service that the company that makes the machine went out of business. There is only one Porteus milling machinist in all of Scotland!
Our next tour at Glen Moray
The Glen Moray warehouse. Barrels are bought from the US bourbon companies and used in the making of Whisky.
The 2 barrels on the upper right show the evaporation of whisky as it ages. They call the evaporation the "angels' share"
Many of the buildings at Glen Morary are original buildings and can't be modified due to their historical status.
Chivas distillery
A flower planter in a half barrel
The distillery room has the pagodas that are a country-wide symbol for distilleries
I had had enough Whisky so I took my tastings home by the third distillery.
reminds me of the lab
Home of Chivas
another great spot for a selfie
I loved this cool view of the street our B&B is on with all the chimneys
May 30, 2025 - Today we're driving 45 minutes to Cairngorms National Park. The Cairngorms are a mountain range in the Eastern Scottish Highlands. The park was established in 2003. We decided to rent bikes and ride 5 miles out to Loch Morlich. We packed our lunch and had a picnic on the beach before the 5 mile ride back. When we got back to Inverness we found a bar with live Scottish music where we had a few beers before our 7:00 reservation at the Waterfront (which we have stopped at the last 2 nights and they never had a table so we finally decided to book a reservation)
We rode the Old Logging Road to Loch Morlich. Jeanene and I rented e-bikes and the guys rented mountain bikes. We had every intention of switching with them on the ride back from Loch Morlich (which was down hill), but somehow it didn't happen?!
we're always happy to be on a bike ride
The old Logging Road was a very scenic, not too busy trail.
and the trail was quite wide in some spots
lunch on Loch Morlich Beach
time for a few pics before we head back
the rain clouds were in the distance but we didn't get rained on during our 3.5 hour rental ($120 for 2 e-bikes and 2 mountain bikes)
On our walk to downtown Inverness we stopped for a quick tour of Inverness Cathedral
Then a walk along the River Ness, with the Inverness Castle overlooking the river (Castle is under construction)
selfie from the pedestrian bridge
The live music at Gellions pub starts at 5:30, so we got there early to get a table. Kev and Jim got their favorite Scottish beer Ennis & Gunn.
Jeanene and I prefer Guinness
The band (Shiehallion) started and we were in the back room but could hear just fine and we could see the band on the TV
It got more crowded and more crowded
and everyone was singing along and having a great time
some are dressed more festively than others
Just before we were leaving for dinner, Kev & Jim got up to use the rest room and a guy asked if the stools at our table were available. I said no, but it was too loud to hear and he decided to sit down and brought a couple friends over. So by the time the guys came back we had replaced them with a few "new" guys!
We sure enjoyed the Scottish music (a guy singing on guitar and a guy on accordion). We're hoping to find a lot more live music in the next week!
View of Inverness
Another selfie on the pedestrian bridge
We all got a bowl of Cullen Skink since we enjoyed it so much at Grayfriars
I love this cute house across from our B&B. The doors are at right angles to each other
We really enjoyed our time at St Ann's guest house. Our host Richard was so good to us.
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