Seems like a good day for a distillery tour!

We decided to have a lie in, the first of the holiday.

Unfortunately, that meant that we missed breakfast, so we needed to find somewhere to go that wasn’t Wetherspoons. Angela, our host, recommended Wickers World which was only a short walk along the river. It was only a small café, but it was busy with locals and tourists. Iain went with a full Scottish breakfast and I had a black pudding roll, yum!

After breakfast, we headed back to the car and started the drive towards Clynelish Distillery for our fourth distillery visit of the holiday. It was still pretty early so we thought we would drive and see what we could visit on the way.

We came across the Dunbeath Heritage Museum so decided to pop in there. To be perfectly frank, we weren’t expecting too much, but it was really interesting. I had never heard of novelist Neil Gunn, who wrote Highland River, but there was a room dedicated to him. The museum also covered pre-historic Pictish to early Christian history, but the most interesting part went into the details around the 1942 air crash when the Duke of Kent died. We spent about 40 minutes walking around the three rooms and gave a donation as there is not a charge for the museum.

It was then a 20 minute journey to the distillery. Again, I wasn’t expecting too much but wow, you can tell Diageo have spent some money on the visitor centre. It probably helps that 95% of Clynelish is used in Johnny Walker, the biggest Whisky brand in the World.

We were too early for the tour, but we spotted a café so wandered up the steps to waste 30 minutes; the woman was very confused when we ordered two coffees though! Nicole was our tour guide for today, and we were in her hands for the next hour and a half. We had booked the full-sensory tour and tutored whisky tasting but neither of us really knew what that meant! I don’t really want to go into too many details as the tour is excellent and I wouldn’t want to ruin it for anyone, but here are a few pictures to give you a taster, so to speak!

As I said in a previous post, there is always something unique about each distillery; this one is the fact the Wash Stills and Spirit Stills are the wrong way around.

Unfortunately, I was driving again, but I got a little non-alcoholic cocktail (Seedlip, Elderflower Cordial and Soda Water) and the whisky tasters to take away. We spent the usual amount in the gift shop. Iain spotted the 'fill your own' bottling station when we initially arrived and told me under no circumstances to let him buy it. After the tasting he bought it. My car is currently weighed down by Whisky!

After the distillery visit, we headed to Dornoch to the Royal Golf Hotel, our home for the night. The car park was heaving, and the only space was next to a Rolls Royce, Alfie the Astra fitted in perfectly! The room was average but for some reason, we have the biggest shower imaginable!

We didn’t want to stay in the hotel for dinner so headed out for a wander around Dornoch. We came across Jail Dornoch, now a very high-end department store, and had a look around. We overheard a customer asking where they could potentially eat and that most places had already turned people away, eeeek; time to find somewhere before the dinner rush at 6pm.

We went to a pub on the corner, but they were only taking pre-booked reservations. Our next stop was “The Courtroom,” and thankfully they had a table available until 7pm. We gladly accepted and sat down for a burger and fries, and possibly the strongest Margarita I have ever had in my life!

Dinner was good, but it was getting busier, so we headed out for a walk before going back to the hotel. Unfortunately, it was raining so we walked as quickly as possible to one end of the village and back. We did pass Dornoch Cathedral which is beautiful, but obviously it was closed so we couldn’t go in.

We got back to the hotel and decided to go for a drink in the bar; I think I was the only female in the bar/restaurant, it was definitely a golf hotel!