This evening I am posting a record of the final day of our five day Scotland Whisky Tour.

Overnight we had stayed at the 3 star rated Glenlochy Guest House near the centre of Fort William. This proved very clean and satisfactory and provided a hearty breakfast to set us up for the final day.

Our first stop was round the corner at Fort William railway station to see and photograph the famous Jacobite Steam Express aka 'Harry Potter Train' which was getting up a head of steam in preparation for the morning run up to Mallaig.

Next we motored down to scenic Glencoe for a brief visit to the Visitor Centre and some morning refreshments, photos and shopping.

Then we drove up the famous glen (with another photo stop en-route), across the desolate Rannoch Moor and on down to Loch Lomond ( 'Bonnie Banks' of) before reaching Auchentoshan at about 12.45pm.

After a wait of about 10 mins we joined the distillery tour which was escorted by a first class local guide who clearly had a mastery of both Auchentoshan and the whisky industry in general. We were taken through the various processes of malting, mashing, distillation and maturation before sampling a few drams in the bar. This was an excellent value experience and it was noted that single malts for sale in the distillery shop appeared to be cheaper than equivalent malts sold in other distilleries we had visited.

Here is the final stage where the whisky matures in oak barrels for 6, 10, 12 years and longer. A 50 year old is shortly to be bottled.

Our guide describing the distilling process.


Three stills for distilling. Auchentoshan distills its spirit three times as compared with two distillations more common in the Scotch whisky industry.


This visit concluded our tour so we drove on down to Prestwick Airport and fond farewells. We had covered a large part of Scotland and visited seven distilleries.

Labels: Whisky

posted by Nigel Cole @ 11:09 AM