The whisky trail and the North East 250

▼ Top: Coppersmith workers; left: The Station Hotel, Rothes; below: the new Macallan Distillery near Craigellachie. chocolate, citrus and spices.

By the time we get to the tasting we’re hooked.

The Station Hotel is on the North East 250 tourist route which takes in many of the region’s distilleries.

It also covers the spectacular Cairngorms National Park with its fabulous walks and winter sports, the Spey – one of the most famous salmon and sea trout rivers in the world – and a string of fine golf courses

Visitors to the hotel can, appropriately enough, see a copper still which introduces them to Forsyths’ founder Alexander and his son Ernest, nicknamed “Toots” after whom the hotel’s bistro is now titled.

Owner Richard admits the hotel’s revamp came “more from the heart than the head.

He said: “We were very dismayed to see yet another beautiful sandstone building in our small whisky town go to rack and ruin.

“Funds were made available to restore it to its former glory, bringing a whisky theme fitting of the area and the Forsyth family’s background.”

The project is not only popular with the locals,but of whisky lovers globally.

And the VIPs are back including TV comedian Jack Whitehall, who dropped into Toots during a fishing trip.