The warmest day of the year. 24 degrees yesterday and almost the same forecast for today. The towns beaches solid with families enjoying the sunshine.
We head off to Lindores Abbey. Another of those gently crumbling ruins found on the banks of the Tay. In the parking lot we meet a lady from Manchester who has had a heart transplant. " Coming here has added ten years to my life " she informs us. We wish her well. She has two Belgian Sheepdogs which are 14 years old . This, it seems, is a miraculously good age for the breed.
By the main gateway a Jack Russell rushes out to warn us off but soon decides we're 'dog people'. He gets a tickle under his chin which is enough reassurance for him to disappear back into the farmers caravan which doubles up as an office. We are left alone to explore crumbling nooks and crannies. The iconoclasts did a good job here and there's not much left of what must have been a huge building.
Two tiny graves of young Princes. Nothing to tell us who they were. From the size of the tombs I'm guessing 13th century royal still births.
On the other side of the road from the old medieval gateway the farmer has upgraded the old barns and repurposed them as a state of the art distillery.
This is a bright and stylishly modern affair. A lucid young man who has recently graduated in engineering from Strathclyde tells us that the earliest record of whisky being made or sold in Scotland can be found in the abbey archives. He also informs us the water for the monks whisky came from the 'Holy Burn'. Today it comes from their own bore hole.
It's a beautiful location but possibly just a wee bit too far from St Andrews to attract tourists? Barring the lady with a new heart and a couple of staff from the bottling plant the place is deserted. If the distillery was on the other side of the road it would make Highland Malt but on this side of the road it's Lowland. Another of those peculiarities of Scottish life.
We buy a couple of bottles . We're asked if we want to taste some before buying but 'The Font' informs me we don't.
7 comments:
This pedantic geologist thinks the boundary between Highland and Lowland Scotland is defined by the unimaginatively named Highland Boundary Fault, and wonders if the road by Lindores Abbey really does lie right on the fault line.
Nobby is entered into a dog agility competition near Cupar this coming weekend. If things go badly, perhaps we'll retreat to the abbey/distillery to check it out!
Cheers, Gail.
Ah, a whisky "expression" as the modern jargon goes, named after Friar John Cor - the first known written reference to Scottish malt whisky! In 1495 - the same year as the Papal Bull founding King's College of the University of Aberdeen.
Sipping my morning coffee and listening to the beautiful Scottish guitar quartet. What a lovely way to start the day.
Let us know what you think of the whisky. With prices what they are, they should be profitable.
Nothing like being the designated driver.
Good luck, Nobby!
The word distillery will draw American tourists in droves. Try before you buy will ensure a “ door buster”. Theowners just need to focus the range of their advertising a bit more. Can your imagine how tales of playing the Old Course and then finding this local distillery will play back home?
Post a Comment