Sunny Scotland?

Sunny Scotland?
While back home in Easton, PA folks were dealing with high humidity and temps in the upper 90’s we were enjoying pleasantly warm and sunny Scotland. Wait… What? Sunny Scotland? That’s right folks, we had bright blue skies and super comfortable temps in the mid to upper 70’s all week, virtually unheard of in Scotland. I’ve been there a half a dozen times and this is the first time I’ve been able to photograph Edinburgh Castle with bright blue cloudless skies in the background, what a treat!

​The other surprise, at least for me, on this trip was gin; the new national drink of Scotland. Yes, of course, you can still get at least a dozen varieties of Scotch in virtually any pub, but there are gin bars popping up everywhere! There are at least seven craft gin distilleries in Edinburgh alone, each producing their flagship bottle as well as numerous other styles and flavors like elderflower or rhubarb & ginger. You can get dry gins, floral gins aromatic gins. And the plethora of tonics is out of control with dozens of brands concocting all sorts of flavors. So when you ask for a gin & tonic at your local pub be prepared to answer a few questions; which gin would you like? Which tonic? And what would you like for a garnish? Thankfully all the bartenders are super friendly and glad to help us Americans sort it all out. Personally, after much testing and tasting (and more testing and tasting), I settled on The Botanist; a floral but dry gin with Fever-Tree Indian tonic and a grapefruit garnish, although it went pretty well with a thyme garnish too. 

Another advantage of going in late June and early July (besides the weather) is that it stays light until after 11:30 at night. We were on our way back to the hotel after enjoying some wonderful traditional Scottish music at Gellions Bar on Bridge Street in Inverness and I took one picture from the bridge over the River Ness at a quarter to one in the morning. There was still a faint glow on the horizon. 

​All in all it was a fabulous trip… We spent our first night in Stirling, a delightful town with a great pedestrian zone. Large enough to have lots of options and small enough to feel comfortable and cozy. We walked over the famous Stirling bridge where William Wallace defeated the superior English forces in 1297 and toured Stirling Castle, perched high on a rock overlooking the town below. Then on to Inverness, the capital of the Scottish Highlands. From there we visited Glenfiddich and had a tour of the Speyside Cooperage. The cooperage tour was especially fun, it’s an aspect of whisky that most people don’t even consider, but it’s where much of the flavor of a whisky comes from. Being able to look out over the production floor and watch the guys repair and wheel the barrels around was amazing. It’s a highly specialized craft requiring a four year apprenticeship and lots of hard work. These men are truly the unsung heroes of the whisky trade. Oban was our next stop, a pretty little fishing village on the west coast and home to the famous Oban distillery. Last but certainly not least we ended the trip in Edinburgh and visited the town of St Andrews from there. 

Scotland is a truly magical place and I’m sure I’ll be going back again. Until next time…
Slainte!