Two Distilleries in One Day!

 We weren’t really aiming to make breakfast, but when you plan to lie in, it never happens.

We wandered down at 8.45am, still full from the night before. I ended up with coffee, a yoghurt and toast, which was about all I could handle.

After breakfast, we checked out and headed to Wolfburn Distillery. It's an independent distillery, and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much! Oh, how I was wrong!

Our distillery guide was Charlie, and he was excellent. I think this is the first time I have ever seen a distillery actually making spirit as I was being shown around. We spent an hour learning about their process, and the two businessmen who founded the distillery, before tasting some of their whisky. Unfortunately, I was driving but I did get a miniature to take away. Iain, on the other hand, seemed to make a new friend, got the end of a bottle in the tasting and the last of a barrel; he ended up having 5 drams, and it wasn’t even noon! The gift shop did well.











We left the distillery and headed for Dunnet Head Lighthouse, which sits at the northernmost point of the Scottish mainland. It is perched on top of stunning 300ft cliffs and is only reached by a single- track road which seems to be the norm now! We only stayed for a short photo opportunity, partly because we were in a bit of a rush and partly because the midges were out in force.


Our next stop was John O’Groats; I wasn’t going to judge it before I had been, but wow, what a tourist trap. We quickly took a picture of “the sign,” then made a hasty retreat to the car and onwards to Wick.


Wick was only a 30-minute drive away, but we were rushing to make a tasting of Pulteney Distillery. I wanted to drop the car off, then walk to the distillery but we were so rushed, I had to drive. Unlucky for me again! Iain thoroughly enjoyed the drams we were presented with; thankfully, I got to take mine away in little miniatures (that’s tonight’s entertainment sorted!).





We came away with two interesting facts from Old Pulteney; firstly, the Wash Still was too tall so they had to cut off the top and attach it further down, but in the shape of an elbow, and secondly, the summer has been so dry that they had to stop producing over 6 weeks ago due to a shortage of water (and they are not expecting water until mid October!). They don’t seem too worried which makes me suspicious…

As I hadn’t been drinking, we took the car to the nearest castle; there are two in the vicinity. The first one is Castle of Old Wick and there is not much left of it. We walked around the cliffs to it, took a picture and then headed on our merry way.

I was planning to drive to the guest house we were staying in, but we couldn’t check in until 4pm, so we headed to the other castle, Castle Sinclair Girnigoe. It has long been important to the Caithness area, once holding a central role in the political and social history of the Highlands and Scotland. It has also been in Game of Thrones, so I’m told!






We enjoyed walking around the ruins, and at least we could imagine what this castle would have been like to live in. It took around 45 minutes to visit the castle, and it was only a short 15 minutes back to the centre of Wick and to our guest house.

We checked into Bank Guest House; my only complaint being the flights of stairs we had to carry our luggage up. It was about 5pm and time for dinner so we decided to take a wander through Wick; that didn’t take long and apart from the Wetherspoons, it didn’t look like much was open.

We ended up in Spoons’ and so far, the rest is history! 


I’ve finally had my first drink of the day and a curry! 

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