Best Day Yet! Scotch Whisky and a Distillery Tour

We anticipate that we will really enjoy this day. After breakfast we again boarded our bus and rode to the charming Victorian town of Pitlochry. Pitlochry is burgh of about 2500 residents in the council area of Perth and Kinross. The town has two local distilleries and we were taken to the Blair Athol Distillery for a tour.

Our "hotel" in Narin

As we left the parking lot and walked to the distillery entrance, we noticed that the tree trunks were black.

Black trunks and angel's share

We were told that this is caused by the “angel’s share” which is ethanol that escapes from oak barrels as the whisky is aged in nearby warehouses. Specifically, a black fungus grows where the fermentation product is aged in oaken barrels. The barrels breathe over time and up to 30% of the alcohol contained in the whisky is lost to the atmosphere over the years through evaporation. This is affectionately called the “angels share,” and it is this airborne ethanol that stimulates fungal germination. We entered the distillery and viewed the Blair Athol museum while we were waiting for our tour to begin.

Blair Athol Distillery

Our guide finally finished a previous tour, and we were taken to a building where the grain is malted.

The distillery museum

Scotch whiskey can be divided into 5 categories: single malt Scotch whisky; single grain Scotch whisky; blended malt Scotch whisky; blended grain Scotch whisky; and blended Scotch whisky. At Blair Athol they distill a single malt whiskey named Blair Athol, but this whisky is also used in a blended whisky called Bell’s.

Scottish water for the whisky

We also learned that there are legal requirements that must be met for a whisky to be called a Scotch whiskey.

Sniffing for the "angel's share"

First the whisky must be distilled in a distillery located in Scotland (duh!), and be produced only from Scottish water and malted barley (to which only whole grains of other cereals may be added), and must be distilled twice. We then proceeded to fermentation building where the mash and yeast in a controlled environment produce the alcohol.

Barrels in the warehouse

The distillery courtyard

Next was the first distillation building where we were amazed at the volume of alcohol coming off the stills. The distillery has an annual 2.5 million liter capacity which to us is a whole lot of booze! Our tour ended at the warehouse where the whisky is aged in barrels in a controlled climate warehouse. Blair Athol single malt is aged for 12 years, but some of the whiskey that goes into the Bell’s blend is only aged for 5 years.
We were then taken to a gift shop where we were given a taste of Bell’s (they save the good stuff to sell) and a chance to buy some souvenirs. We walked around the distillery courtyard while we waited for our bus to pick us up.

Downtown Pitlochry

Main Street in Pitlochry

A Scottish pharmacy

Collecting the Royal Mail

Holy Trinity sanctuary

Lighted pulpit- Holy Trinity

Our bus took us to downtown Pitlochry where we could grab some lunch and view the sights. We had lunch with Frank and Carol Ann and then began a walking tour of the town. We were charmed with Pitlochry and felt that it was a place we would definitely like to return to.  After finishing our tour, we boarded our bus for a ride to St. Andrews, renowned as the “Home of Golf,” and for its university, Scotland’s oldest. Incidentally, it was at the university where Kate and Prince William met and started their relationship.  The tour guide would just get giddy talking about this.

St. Andrew's entrance arch

St. Andrew's Cathedral ruins

While we were on our own, it was suggest that we visit Holy Trinity Church, the ruins of St. Andrew’s Cathedral, and if you were in for a long walk, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club which exercises legislative authority over the game worldwide is home to The Open Championship, the oldest of golf’s four major championships.

Part of the huge cemetery

We started with the church which was starting to look like so many of the churches we have seen.

At the ruins

It was, however, a beautiful structure. Next we walked to a coffee shop where we could pee. Public restrooms are non-existent in Scotland (at least when one needs them!), so the only option is to use the restroom in one of the businesses and make a purchase to pay for the use. We got two coffees to go.

Another cemetery shot

Defunct tomb

We strolled along the street, undoubtedly one used by Kate and Prince William, heading for the cathedral ruins. When we arrived we were quite impressed with the size of this compound. St. Andrew’s was built in 1160 and was the most important pilgrimage center in medieval Scotland and one of the most important in Europe.

OMG! Could Kate and Prince William have been here?

Scottish Reformation and several wars that laid siege on the cathedral caused it to lose its ecclesiastical status in the mid-1500. As we gazed and walked among the ruins, Capt. Larry wondered if he was looking at some detail that Kate and Prince William had seen… Being quite a distance from the golf club, we decided to skip that site.

Get your kilts here

We found our way to the appointed pickup spot, which may have been frequented by Kate and Prince William, and waited for our bus with some folks from our tour group.

As we left St. Andrews, we passed by two famous golf courses which we were told were recently purchased by Donald Trump. Guess the "Donald" figures there is some money to be made in golf resorts.

At dinner with Frank & Carol Ann

We had a fairly long bus ride to Edinburgh and arrived at our hotel around 1800, making for a pretty long day. Barely after just checking in, we were heading out for dinner at a popular restaurant.

Ghost tour "scary" place

After dinner we were treated to a walking ghost tour where we discovered the haunts of Edinburgh’s eccentric characters in the Old Town district. We walked through cemeteries and places where they performed public executions in medieval times. We were tired so we found this tour a little cheesy, not very scary nor entertaining. We were glad to return to our hotel and get some rest