The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Walking If whisky’s your thing then a ramble along the Speyside Way might just be paradise
ROBERT Burns said that “Freedom and Whisky Gang Thigither”. A slight adaptation of that line, to make it “walking and whisky”, seemed very appropriate on a recent visit to Strathspey. The area boasts the only Malt Whisky Trail (for cars) in the world, and a glance at the map shows a tight concentration of distilleries including some of the most famous names in the panoply of classic malts. What’s more, many of them can be linked by walking through the glorious Speyside hills and glens: what could be better?
The malt whisky business is highly organised and is a major exporter, but in the past this was far from the case. Burns worked as an exciseman for a time and would have sympathised with his colleagues in the north east in their constant battles to find and stamp out the hundreds of illicit stills. The excisemen, called “gaugers”, did what they could but the local distillers were usually a step or two ahead of them, producing fine quality whisky and smuggling it out.
Among the many routes through the hills are some known as “coffin roads”, along which the recently departed would be carried back to their home parish for burial; it was far from unknown, however, for the coffins to contain liquid rather than human spirits and not even a gauger would dare open a coffin.
Everything changed when George Smith decided to turn the cottage industry into a profitable business and in 1824 obtained a licence to distil spirits in Glen Livet. This followed a request from King George IV who, while on his famous visit to Scotland in 1822, asked for Glenlivet by name. Many others have followed George Smith’s lead, but The Glenlivet is proud of being the original legal malt (the name became a trademark in 1884) and the distillery which produces it can still be visited today.
That brings us to the Speyside Way, a walking trail which spreads down through the area. It runs from Buckie on the Moray coast to Aviemore, generally following the course of the River Spey, but it has had a somewhat chequered history, as the spur routes which branch off from it indicate. The first of these goes to Dufftown, linking the main route with the town that describes itself as the malt whisky capital of Scotland.
It starts from Craigellachie, where a diversion, a short walk from the Craigellachie Hotel which provided very comfortable accommodation for us, leads to Thomas Telford’s magnificent bridge. The first cast-iron bridge in Scotland, it vaults the Spey in one elegant arch and has stood here for 200 years, a testament to its designer and the then revolutionary material he used. A mile up the hill is the Speyside Cooperage, where you can watch the fascinating process barrels of 100-yearold oak being made for the whisky industry. (We were amused to discover that the hotel’s excellent restaurant, the Copper Dog, is named after the small flask that distillery workers once used to take a wee freebie home.)
The Dufftown trail is a beautiful five-mile walk on an old railway line high above the turbulent River Fiddich. It leads you into Dufftown past two linked distilleries – Balvenie, the smaller of the two, and Glenfiddich, a major producer and also now a major tourist attraction offering tours and tastings all year round. Glenfiddich was founded by the Grant family in 1887 and they are still involved today. The tour takes you through the whole process. Despite the gradual introduction of a wee bit more technology, there is something timeless about the gleaming copper stills which speaks of an almost mysterious process. In a sense, we don’t want to know how it happens. All we need to know is that it is happening and people are still making magic in places like this to produce the pale golden “water of life” that you can taste at the end of the tour. If you want, you can take a trip on the restored rail line from Dufftown to Keith. Known as the Whisky Line, it offers a 90-minute round trip on summer weekends. We, however, continued on foot by taking an old right of way over the Gowrie hill to Aberlour, where there is another distillery producing a very fine malt. The old route twists and turns through plantations and across fields and you can well imagine the gaugers coming this way looking for tell-tale signs of
distilling. Partway up the hill, pause at the seat placed here in memory of a much-loved local GP, Dr Ian Cunningham, and take in the lovely view of Dufftown and the bowl of hills that surround it.
The stretch of the Speyside Way from Craigellachie to Ballindalloch, which can be considered as the core of the route, could easily be renamed the Whisky Walk. It’s a good day’s march of 12 miles, all on an old railway line, so pretty flat, with the Spey for company most of the way. In this relatively short section, no sooner have you passed one distillery than you come upon another – Aberlour, Daluaine, Carron, Tamdhu, Knockando, Ballindalloch … what a litany of names that is.
The old railway line is itself a further link between walking and whisky, as it was built partly to serve the distilleries, some of which had their own station halts. Several of these remain and make attractive staging points. The former station building at Aberlour has been turned into a Speyside visitor centre with a great deal of interesting information. The centre is run by Aberlour’s lively community association and staffed by volunteers. The town’s full name is Charlestown of Aberlour, reflecting its foundation by Charles Grant in the early 19th century.
We found a further whisky link in Ballindalloch when we stayed at Cragganmore, a great B&B where our hosts, Helen and Tony Allcott, told us that the house was originally built for the distillery manager 120 years ago.I was pleased to find that, like the founder of Glenlivet, his name was also Smith. When I first walked the Speyside Way, 20 years ago, the route down the river from Ballindalloch could not be used due to access difficulties. These have largely been resolved and it makes an extremely pleasant walk through Cromdale, Grantown-on-Spey, Nethy Bridge and on to Aviemore. Before this route was completed, and looking for a more satisfying ending to the trail, the Speyside Way planners took the path over the hills from Ballindalloch to Tomintoul, and this spur can still be walked today. It leads you through Glen Livet, so that you can add the original licensed distillery to your itinerary, a diversion which is well worth taking, not just for the whisky link but also because the walk offers wonderful views of the secretive hills in this corner of the Cairngorms National Park, hills which are darkly shaded with heather and rusty grasses. There are so many hidden folds and corners that it is easy to imagine illicit distilling going on well away from prying eyes. You never know, there might even be some today …
All of the distilleries have their own story to tell, and anyone with an interest in whisky would find them absorbing. If, like me, you also enjoy walking, you have all that you could ask for on Speyside. And to make it really relaxing you can pass all the arrangements to someone else. Our trip was in the hands of Macs Adventure, who offer a range of self-guided activity breaks. The comprehensive pack they sent us included a guide to the Speyside Way, and as we walked, they moved our baggage to our next overnight halt, enabling us to wander along with only a light load, which without doubt increases the pleasure of the walk.
We were a little surprised that, in August, we had seen few other walkers. We spoke to a Speyside Way ranger about this, and he told us numbers of walkers on the Way, never particularly high, are falling slightly. This seems a shame. The trail has so much to offer it is hard to understand why it is not more popular. Maybe it just needs a wee boost. We’ll certainly be back. Walking, whisky and Speyside? – it’s a perfect match as far as I’m concerned.