Malt Mansions: The Quaich Bar in Craigellachie

April 11, 2012 by Keith Savage
The Craigellachie Hotel Houses The Quaich Bar

Craigellachie. The heart of Speyside. This tiny town straddles the River Spey in the center of the whisky Bermuda triangle. Macallan and Dewar’s are a stones-throw away. Aberlour is a short jaunt to the west. Go north and you’ll find Glen Grant and Glenrothes. Choose the southern path and there, in Dufftown, stand Balvenie, Glenfiddich, and Mortlach. I could go on.

It makes sense, then, that one of the best whisky selections in the world hides here in the center, in Craigellachie (pron. creg-EL-ah-key): The Quaich Bar. It’s the kind of place that inspires one to create a series of blog posts dedicated to Scotland’s greatest whisky bars. Thus is born Malt Mansions. I’m excited to share these places with you not only because of their inspirational dedication to Scotland’s national drink… Read more...

A Catalog in Stone: Shetland’s Jarlshof

April 9, 2012 by Keith Savage
Prehistoric Jarlshof, the Shetland Islands, Scotland

There are places in Scotland that have defied the ravages of time. The wild winds and weather of the north Atlantic work to mummify these sites, embalming them in thick layers of silt and sand and dirt covered over with coastal grasses. They remain hidden from the eye and outside the reckoning of men until that capricious weather once more works its magic to reveal something ancient to the modern world.

In 1897, such a storm tore through Shetland’s southern mainland, riling up the sea and eroding earth along the coast to reveal a curiously ancient wall. Formal excavations began nearly 30 years later on the site known as Jarlshof and the rest is literally history. Lots of it. Read more...

Picture This: Loch Morlich, the Mirrormere

April 6, 2012 by Keith Savage
Loch Morlich in Scotland's Cairngorms National Park

Loch Morlich holds the sky at Cairn Gorm’s feet. The lake surface is a sheet of frozen glass thawing at the edges where the mountain winds fail to scuff the reflection. A perfume of snow rides the air shivering from the mountain tops. I bend down to stare at the black rocks flecking the shore; they are mountains to whatever looks up to them. I had passed from the fecund darkness of Rothiemurchus Forest where slats of daylight periodically pierced the entwined arms of ancient oaks to this wide vision. The contrast is almost too much: the air frosts my lungs; my pupils constrict to black pinpoints; my reflection wavers in Morlich’s visage.

I have a curious habit of comparing real places like Loch Morlich to those that exist only in stories. Read more...

Edinburgh’s Castles of Education

April 4, 2012 by Keith Savage
George Heriot's School in Edinburgh's Old Town

Even the schools in Edinburgh are something to gape and wonder at. That was the thought flitting through my mind as I stood in the courtyard of George Heriot’s School on the southern edge of Edinburgh’s Old Town. It’s a rare view, being inside the school. Much like other castles of education in Edinburgh, George Heriot’s School isn’t open to visitors, which I think is a pretty smart policy (minors and all). So how did I sneak past the guards and clamber over the Flodden Wall without being noticed?

No, it wasn’t my years training as a ninja in Iga province. I was the guest of Willie Wallace, a George Heriot’s alum which granted him the powers of re-entry to the school. With guests. Read more...

Five Single Malts for Aspiring Whisky Drinkers

April 2, 2012 by Keith Savage
Traveling Savage's Whisky Cache

By my latest count, I’ve visited approximately 30 distilleries in Scotland, and I’ve got another 15 or so slated for my upcoming trip that begins in just three weeks. During those visits and the copious amount of time I’ve spent checking in on Scotland’s pubs, I’ve had the opportunity to taste untold hundreds of different whiskies. Some have been rare masterpieces, rich and dark and old as a grandparent; others have been nice, easy-drinking drams but somewhat uninspiring; and other whiskies have matched every descriptor I could devise between the two extremes.

That’s a lot of whisky data. I’ve mostly used it to determine what whiskies I like and stock in my closet (hence the photo on this post), but I realize that many people don’t share the same zeal for single malt Scotch that I do… Read more...

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