Tea Time Travels

One of the best parts about living in London is that we have so many beautiful places right on our doorstep. For my husband’s birthday we traveled north to Edinburgh for a weekend filled with scotch tasting, hiking, and listening to Scottish hymns.

We took a train ride to Edinburgh which was magical in itself. For 4.5 hours we got to see admire the beautiful English countryside. The train is an incredibly relaxing way to travel while getting to take in the scenery. When we arrived in Edinburgh we wanted to grab some lunch at a pub. Clay started off his scotch tasting journey by having four unique scotches from different regions in Scotland. Each region varies in terms of their flavour profile.

That evening, we booked a tour at a one of Edinburgh’s newest distilleries called Hollyrood Distillery. During the tour we learned about the strict rules surrounding scotch making and the intensive process that it involves. One of the rules is that scotch whisky must be matured for a minimum of 3 years in oak casks. Because Holyrood was established in 2019, they were still 6 months away from having their first completed batch of scotch. Therefore, we got to try their “new make spirit”, which is pretty much our version of moonshine. Although it wasn’t what one thinks of as scotch, it was interesting to see how their different distilling techniques resulted in distinct flavours even before the aging process.

The next day we explored Edinburgh castle. We were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day and learned about its rich history through an audio tour. The castle was incredibly beautiful. We got to walk though the rooms where prisoners of war were held; marvelled at St Margaret’s Chapel, the oldest building in Edinburgh; and strolled along walls that were the fortress of the city.

After exploring the castle for hours, we walked down the royal mall, which is a street that runs through the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town. We stopped to watch a bagpipe player before continuing exploring the colourful shops that lined the streets.

We popped into a pub and got some pies (filled with chicken and meat- not your classic American apple pie!) then it was off to taste more scotch!

We had another tour at The Scotch Whisky Experience. This one was a bit more interactive and highlighted the different flavour profiles for different regions of Scotland. We got to taste one scotch from each region and compare the differences while learning about the scotch making process. The best part was that we got to see one of the biggest Scotch collections in the world, the Diago Claive Vidiz Whisky Collection. It holds 3,384 bottles of scotch which were displayed beautifully with a warm amber glow.

After our scotch tasting experience, we wanted to hike up Arthurs Seat, which is an ancient volcano on a hill that overlooks the city. On our way to the hill, it started drizzling and was extremely gloomy. We were wondering if it was worth it to even do the hike. Luckily, we decided to continue and we were so glad we did. When we approached the top of the hill, we suddenly found ourselves above the clouds. Although we couldn’t see the city, the sun’s glow on the top of the clouds was breathtaking. While admiring the view, my husband and I each wrote a Scottish poem inspired by the landscape we were observing. It was one of the most memorable parts of our trip.

The following day we headed out to the countryside. We didn’t get as lucky with weather that day, but still made the most of it. We rented a car and headed out to Loch Lomond, which was about a 1.5 hour drive from Edinburgh. We went on a hike called Conic Hill, which is supposed to have stunning views of the lake. Unfortunately, due to the weather we could only make out the lake during brief periods between bouts of clouds and rain. When we reached the very top of the mountain, a fellow hiker exclaimed “Wow! I can’t believe how bad the weather is; I’ve hiked this so many times and this is the worst I have ever seen it!” Clay and I were laughing the whole way down and still had the best time despite the weather. We got back into our car and decided to admire the landscape from our warm dry car.

As we drove past vast fields filled with frolicking lambs, I felt so at peace. The landscape was stunning. We stopped along the way to admire various parts of the lake and enjoy the serenity.

We stopped for one more distillery tour at Glengoyne Distillery. This distillery’s techniques were more traditional than the first one we went to, and their scotch was excellent. Glengoyne was established in 1833 and the tour highlighted its long history and how the distillery had evolved.

We stopped at a local pub before heading back to Edinburgh and had some of the best fish and chips we have had since we moved to the UK. It was the perfect day in the Scottish countryside, and left us knowing we wanted to spend more time exploring Scotland.

We spent our last morning having a classic Scottish breakfast and stopping at Scotland’s oldest independent whisky shop. Clay bought a few bottles of scotch to take back home as a birthday present to himself and we headed back home to London. It was an amazing first trip to Scotland and certainly will not be our last.