Whiskey, Castles and Storyteller

This morning we left Inverness and arrived at the Glenmorangie Distillery for a 9:30am tour. The setting is perfect as so many settings are in Scotland. We passed over a “burn” on a narrow road to enter the property. Birds are singing, foliage is lush and the whiskey distillery is right on the coast of the North Sea. Our tour started with a young lass who was full,of humour as well as well schooled in the steps required to make the single malt whiskey. She gave full credit to the resources of water available. We toured and SMELLED  the must and various other stages, including information on the oak barrels aging process and where it all came from, the various types of barley used. She certainly brought a dull subject (To me) to life.

We moved on to Sutherland  County and Dunrobin castle. It is the historic home of the Earls and Dukes of Sutherland. Family still live in apartments in the castle today (an elderly lady) and the current Earl has a modern house on the property.  Dunrobin was  built in 1275, and after a fire destroyed much of it, it was rebuilt in 1860 because Queen Victoria was coming to stay. The castle is not large by castle standards, the gardens are magnificent. The castle is situated sort of uphill from the gardens and walls. The area covers 1.5 million acres. The gardens are very English in style, orderly, with paths and with boxwood mazes. There is also a bird Center and show that lasts about one hour.  The trainer is very engaging and full of humour! He lives in a house on the corner of the property with his family. His job is the birds, a white tailed eagle, an osprey, Harris hawks and an amazing owl. The owl was most interesting, he had found the owl when it had just been born, it weight about 3 ounces and was about 4 inches in length. By the time it was 3weeks old it was full size and weighed 5 lbs. . The story of  how he trained it to fly and hunt was fascinating. Likewise with the other birds. The falcon was the other intriguing bird, wearing a leather hood. It would be an interesting subject to study. One day I will google Dunrobin Castle birds, and Owl called Cedar. The birds were all named for the trees where the bird guy found them.
We trundled further up into the highlands, narrow roads, rolling moors,  More sheep and lambs, i swear  some look like they were born 5 minutes ago!
We arrive in Thurso in the mid afternoon at the St Clair Hotel. Settle into our rooms and by 4:20 we were on the road again to a pub in a village close by.....The Old Smiddy Pub was our destination for a  cayleigh. We were royally entertained by a Gaelic highlander who had a great sense of honour, and a lovely voice, he sang some Gaelic songs and introduced a young fellow who played the bagpipes for us. A few good laughs, some drink and back to the hotel for dinner and bed.
Tomorrow we will be on a small ferry to the Orkneys,