Travelling the Highlands

This cairn was more interesting than the castle. Double stone walls with earth between, strong and insulated.

Castles get boring. Somehow water tumbling over the stones in a lush gorge never does. This needed sound so I chose video.
 Big Burn Falls, Golspie, Scotland (Video)

Song did not want to keep in her crate in our room. She kept trying for the little sofa. We compromised.


I really enjoyed the tour of the whiskey distillery. Cardu was founded by a woman. She distilled illegally when she began. When the law came to her kitchen distillery she would put dough on the table and dust her apron with flour to disguise the smell of yeast. Then she would excuse herself and duck out back to run a red flag up the pole. This warned others that the law was about. Regardless she was caught several times, with her farmer husband going to jail for her. They did not send women to jail.

The stills were beautiful, the process fascinating. The tour started by testing our noses on scents that can be found in the mature spirits and ended with sampling and trying to identify the scents. At the outset they listed the ingredients and I realized I would not be able to enjoy the samples as there would be gluten. They suggested I just sniff them. So I bought a bottle of the one I enjoyed most while sniffing.
About 2% of the whiskey evaporates every year it matures in the casks. They call this "the angels' share".