‘ There are several Gaelic choirs in the area and they are very popular’

whisky came easily to me. One of the first things we did when we moved up was a tour of Islay’s distilleries – the tour of Ardbeg was the best, but Lagavulin is my favourite whisky. Adelphi have built a distillery near us in Ardnamurchan, and it’s been a fantastic boost to the area.

I absolutely love Scottish music. I grew up with American country music and there are a lot of similarities, mainly because a lot of folk music in the States has origins in Scottish music. Now it’s starting to go the other way; it’s quite interesting to rock up somewhere and hear an American song that I know from my youth but with different lyrics and a different name.

I like the trad groups like Fred Morrison with his pipes, and obviously we’ve seen Blazing Fiddles. We’re not very far from Mary Anne Kennedy’s place and she does a lot of secret shows where it’s not really a gig, it’s more ‘here are some musicians that are passing through, so come along with a box of wine and enjoy yourselves’. It’s good that the musical tradition is so strong – at ceilidhs you get everyone, from lots of young people to the guys working the ski lifts, who turn up at the village hall in their vans, planning to stay there all night and sleep on the roadside. That appreciation of traditional Scottish music is rare elsewhere in Scotland and in the States. Not that the music here is set in aspic, it’s music of the people.

There are also several Gaelic choirs in the area, and they’re really popular because Gaelic is still the mother tongue for lots of locals. I’ve yet to learn more than the odd word – the name Above: The Commando Monument at Spean Bridge is one

of the area’s most popular tourist sites.