Speyside Cooperage – Casks, Coopers and a Pub Lunch
A few hours.
The route
Speyside Cooperage, outside Craigellachie, is a working cooperage where the coopers build and mend whisky casks by hand, and its visitor centre lets you watch them from a gallery above the floor.
Afterwards, lunch is a couple of minutes away at the Spey Inn, the pub inside the Craigellachie Hotel. It's a good weekday out for anyone curious about whisky, and a fine one for a wet day.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
Book a Speyside Cooperage tour online before you go, for about 11am: it opens Monday to Friday only, tours run on the hour, and under-8s cannot go on them.
Book the Spey Inn, Craigellachie Hotel
Book lunch at the Spey Inn in the Craigellachie Hotel on 01340 881204 or online, for about 12.30pm: it opens every day from noon.
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The day
Craigellachie
An hour among the casks with the hammering going on below you, and a hearty pub lunch in the village.
About two and a half hours
Speyside Cooperage
An attraction
Speyside Cooperage is just outside Craigellachie on the Dufftown road. Park in the visitor car park: there are disabled bays beside the office, near reception. The cooperage has made and mended casks here since 1947. The visit starts with a film, then you watch the coopers from the viewing gallery as they shape staves and hammer hoops against the clock. It's open Monday to Friday only, from 9am, with tours on the hour. Book online before you go: it's essential, and under-8s can't come on the tour. The gallery is up 15 steps, but a ground-floor viewing room shows the film and a live camera on the workshop floor. There's no café on site.
4 min by car
The Spey Inn, Craigellachie Hotel
Lunch
Lunch is 4 minutes' drive into the village at the Spey Inn, the pub inside the Craigellachie Hotel on Victoria Street. The hotel calls it Scotland's oldest drovers' inn, dating from 1703. It opens every day from noon, with a grill menu built on meat from S.A. Mackie's, a local butcher, and roasts on Sundays. Book a table on 01340 881204 or online. If it's full, the Highlander Inn a few doors along serves homemade soups and lunches from noon to 2pm.
If it rains
Made for a wet day: the cooperage visit and lunch are both indoors, and only the car park is out in it.