Great comfy hotel and traditional Scottish breakfast, including Haggis and Black Pudding for Tim, plus some sneaky lunch smuggled out and we were set for a good day. Weather a cool 4C most of the day, but we set out heading east after first having a stroll through the shops nearby the Royal Highland Hotel (our accommodation). Some lovely jewellry places that we might return to tomorrow before heading to Fort William.

First stop on our explore was Rait Castle. We chickened out of going right up to it as it was along a farm laneway and felt more like someone's property than a tourist attraction...oh, and the laneway was unsealed, muddy and without a clear idea of the clearance of this car...anyway...a nice looking small castle from 150m away.

Next up was the Pict Stone known as Rodney's stone (not it's official name). Carved about 1200 years ago but like many artefacts has been moved many times and was even used as a headstone for a grave for a while. It is now in the grounds of Brodie Castle. The castle was closed but it wasn't an amazing piece of history and the attempts to modernise the grounds were a bit weird. Did send James a couple of sneaky pics though.

Third one was off to the ruins of Duffus Castle. Quite a spectacular place. Windy and chilly with nearby military helicopters loud, it was fun to walk up to and imagine the history of the site. It's heydey started in the 1200s but then the stonework was done in the 1400s after the Lord who owned the castle sold 200 trees as payment for the building works. The mound it sits on is not a natural formation and some of the castle has slipped down the hill (quite some years ago though). Just a cool spot. Nearby were some delightful shedded cattle (wintering indoors) and so I couldn't resist but pop in and say hello to them! Even managed to push some of the silage back towards some appreciative heifers before we hit the road again.

Fourth up en route to our intended destination of Buckie/Findochty was the pretty town of Elgin. We spotted the cathedral ruins and couldn't resist a look. We elected not to pay the 10 pounds entry but snapped some pics through the fence anyway.

A check of the timing to make Dalwhinnie distillery by 3pm meant we needed to miss Buckie afterall...we'll have to come back. The drive there revealed that indeed the whole area to the East of Inverness is whisky country but we pressed on to Dalwhinnie, up in the Cairngorns.

A spectacle on arrival with snowy mountain backdrop and striking white buildings! At 394m elevation it is the highest and coldest distillery in Scotland. We joined a tour and tasting at a very reasonable price, and were the only 2 on the tour with the local Bent (that's his name!). The tour walked us through from water, malting, mashing, fermenting, distilling (twice), putting in barrels (American or European), diluting down to 43% from cast strength of about 58%. I was interested that they lose about 1-2% volume per year, so the alcohol at distillation passes through a "safe" that is locked so they only pay tax on the finished product! About 27 pounds per bottle in government tax.

The distillery has passed through many hands since it's origins in 1880s where 3 blokes put 10000 pounds in each (about 3 million pounds) but it didn't work. The site of the distillery and the word Dalwhinnie actually means meeting place, where the high country farmers would meet before travelling through the dangerous pass to the south with their goods and cattle. Currently owned by a multinational company (Diegeo???) that owns 29 distilleries.

The tour ended with a really nice tasting experience with 3 whiskies paired with chocolate truffles. Yum. The effect of the chocolate at taking out the alcohol burn but leaving the complex whisky flavours was great fun. The official line about whether or not to add water to whisky was answered. Have it however you'd like to, but that at cask strength (58% plus) the exothermic nature of the process of water to alcohol means a whole lot more flavours come out.

A nice drive past some friendly sheep that followed us for a while, we stopped to say hi, and dinner in Inverness before a night reading in bed and an early night. Tomorrow, off to the famous Loch!