Scotland Day 9 - Culcreuch Castle

We stayed 2 nights in the stables at Culcreuch Castle.  The room itself was literally a converted stable and wasn't terribly exciting.  The castle however was gorgeous, with an open fire in the sitting room, a restaurant in a dungeon and an elaborate dining room on the first floor.  

The castle was built in 1296 by Maurice Galbraith and was the clan seat of Clan Galbraigh from 1320 to 1624. It has changed clans and hands many times since the 1600's and has been operated as a hotel since the early 1984. Culreuch is a rectangular tower house (stone structure built for defence as well as accommodation), with three stories and an attic and topped by a parapet and slate roof

Culcreuch Castle

Steve sampling a kipper at breakfast.  He said he enjoyed it but wouldn't be having another tomorrow.

A very salty smelly kipper. 

Any place with grounds like these is a bonus for the kids (and by default the adults J).

Grounds of Castle Culcreuch

One of the wee roads leading to the castle

Our main plan for the day were hampered by a road closure.  Navigating around that was easier said than done and revealed one of the limitations of using a SatNav.  Interestingly I just recently spoke to friends Ben and Sharon who are on their way over here as I type.  They're spending 10 weeks driving around the UK and Europe and have opted for map reading over a SatNav.  Initially I thought they were crazy, but I reckon in the case of road closures, detours, diversions etc, maps would have the edge.  Plus you get a much better sense of context and distance with a map.  Still, having said that, I won't be trading ours in just yet J.

By the way - it's lambing time in Scotland.......

Little cuties

So, with detour, our 8 miles to Loch Lomond turned into about 30, and we didn't end up spending that long there.  Instead the highlight for the day was Glengoyne whisky distillery - and I don't even like the stuff!

Glengoyne Distillery

Thanks to our keen as mustard tour guide I now know the following about the production of whisky:

• whisky is made from three ingredients - yeast, water and barley
• the barley is soaked in water until it starts to germinate, at which point it is referred to as malt
• the peaty, smokey flavour of some whiskies is caused by burning peat (as opposed to coal) to dry the malted barley
• a single malt whisky contains whisky made at a single distillery, double malt whiskies are rare and contain whisky from two different distilleries.  
• Blended whiskies contain a mix of whisky from three or more different distilleries and can not take the name of any of the distilleries.
• To call a whisky a Scotch Whisky it must have been aged in an oak barrel in Scotland for a minimum of 3 years.
• The whisky at Glengoyne is aged for a minimum of 10 years in red oak barrels made in Spain.
• The barrels are used to make sherry before being used to store whisky.  This is to remove excess tannins that would taint the taste of the whisky.

Steve took the wee taster tour and had samples of 10 and 18 year old whisky at the start and end of the tour.  Needless to say he enjoyed his tour immensely!