Speyside Whisky – Six Distilleries, a Cooperage and a Castle
Three days by car, from Aberlour to Forres.
The route
Three days among the stills of Speyside, with two nights in Aberlour on the Spey.
Day one runs through Craigellachie and Archiestown to Knockando, for a working woolmill and Cardhu a mile up the road, and comes home by Glenfarclas. Day two stays round Dufftown: the cooperage outside Craigellachie, Glenfiddich, the ruin of Balvenie Castle and the town's square. Day three goes north through Rothes to Glen Moray in Elgin, then west to Forres for Benromach, lunch and Dallas Dhu, where the route ends. Six of the stops are on the Malt Whisky Trail. One of you drives all three days and tastes nothing, or a local driver does the driving for you.
Before you go
Book two nights near Aberlour
Both nights are in or near Aberlour, and the car stays at the bed each evening.
11 miles awayCallie BothySleeps 2
14 miles awayThe GatehouseSleeps 4
14 miles awayInnes HouseSleeps 38-54-large-1774881242.jpg)
14 miles awayViewfield FarmhouseSleeps 8
RothiemayGate LodgeSleeps 2
RothiemayMidparkSleeps 2
20 miles awayButlers CottageSleeps 4
RothiemayBailies CottageSleeps 6
21 miles awayChapeltonSleeps 6
21 miles awayHome FarmSleeps 6
21 miles awayDalgrassickSleeps 4
21 miles awayGreenstyleSleeps 6
21 miles awayTornahatnachSleeps 5
21 miles awayCulbin EdgeSleeps 4
24 miles awayBoath CabinSleeps 4Book the 2pm online, or email VisitorCentre@glenfarclas.com with the date, time and numbers: places are few, and only over-10s can join.
Book the 9am Toasting Tour online, where the availability is live: 16 to a tour, no under-8s, and one driver per group goes free.
Book a tour for about 10.30 on the distillery's site, up to 12 weeks ahead: without a booking there is little chance of a place.
Tours are booked online in hourly slots from 10am to 3pm, and from October to March they run Tuesday to Saturday.
Book Glenfarclas's 2pm first, then a Cardhu tour at about 11am that is over by 1.30, on Diageo's site.
Book the 9.30am tour online or on 01343 550900: it takes 15 at most.
Book the noon Discovery Tour online: an hour, with three of Benromach's own to taste.
Book a driver, if nobody will drive
If nobody in the party wants to drive, book a local private-hire driver or taxis well ahead: the Spirit of Speyside festival keeps a list of firms that run whisky days.
Book a table on its website for a weekend lunch.
Day one
Knockando
A short loop out of Aberlour, over the Spey at Craigellachie and west through Archiestown to Knockando, then home along the A95. The morning starts at a woolmill whose Victorian looms are still at work, with Cardhu a mile up the road for a tour and lunch, and the afternoon belongs to Glenfarclas, in one family's hands since 1865.
47 min at the wheelAbout 23 miles
Knockando Woolmill
It's 19 minutes' drive through Craigellachie, over the Spey and on by Archiestown to Knockando Woolmill, open from 10am. A waulk mill stood here by 1784. By 2000 it was in poor repair, and a trust spent twelve years restoring it; since 2012 its Victorian machinery has been working again, with two looms thought to be the oldest still in use. Have coffee in the Red Roof Coffee Shop, then look round the mill and its shop of throws and blankets.
5 min by car
Cardhu Distillery
An attraction
Cardhu, 5 minutes' drive back up the road, was founded by John and Helen Cumming in 1824; its malt has long gone into Johnnie Walker. Book a tour for about 11am: dates are released about 90 days ahead, and under-8s can't go. Diageo's terms promise a drivers' pack, the driver's drams to take away. Lunch is after, in the Tasting Kitchen and Bar, which also takes visitors who haven't booked a tour.
13 min by car
Glenfarclas Distillery
Glenfarclas is 13 minutes' drive away, over the Spey at Blacksboat and along the A95. John Grant, a cattle breeder, bought the distillery and its farm in 1865, and it has stayed with five generations of his family. Book the 2pm Classic Tour online: about an hour and a half, over-10s only, ending with drams in the Ship's Room. Ask whether the driver's dram can be taken away. Aberlour is 10 minutes home, where the Mash Tun pours the family's single casks by the dram for everyone but tomorrow's driver.
If it rains
Rain changes little today. The woolmill and its coffee shop, Cardhu's tour and Tasting Kitchen, and Glenfarclas's tour and Ship's Room are all under a roof, and only the few steps from each car park are out in the weather. If it pours, give Cardhu longer: its shop and bar take visitors without a tour.
Worth a detour
- Craigellachie
The road crosses the Spey at Craigellachie beside Thomas Telford's bridge of 1814, a single arch of cast iron with castellated towers at each end, closed to cars since 1972. Park by the bridge and walk onto it, or down to the bank below it, before going on to Archiestown.
- The Macallan
The road to Archiestown passes the gates of the Macallan estate at Easter Elchies. Entry is by appointment only, booked at least 24 hours ahead on the Macallan's own site, and visitors must be 18 or over. The days it takes visits change from month to month. Without a booking, drive on.
- Ballindalloch Castle and Gardens
Eleven minutes on up the A95 from Glenfarclas, Ballindalloch Castle and its gardens open Sunday to Thursday in season, 10am to 5pm, with the last admission at 4pm, so it fits only if the 2pm tour ends on time. It is 17 minutes home to Aberlour from there.
- Aberlour Distillery
Aberlour's own distillery is a short walk from the Square, and asks visitors to leave the car in the village. It pours tastings rather than giving a tour of the stills: the shortest tasting is half an hour, all are for over-18s and booked ahead. It opens every day from April to October, 10am to 5pm, and Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, from November to March.
Where to eat
Aberlour Hotel, a restaurant in Charlestown of Aberlour.
Day two
Dufftown
A day round Dufftown, the little town on the Fiddich whose road signs call it the whisky capital of the world. It starts with the coopers at work outside Craigellachie, then Glenfiddich, the ruin of Balvenie Castle a little further along the same road and the town's square.
36 min at the wheelAbout 14 miles
7 min by car
Speyside Cooperage
An attraction
The Speyside Cooperage is 7 minutes' drive through Craigellachie, on the Dufftown road. Book the 9am Toasting Tour online, an hour: a short film, then a gallery above coopers shaping, charring and mending casks without glue or a single nail, over 100,000 a year. It ends with a dram of the cooperage's own 10-year-old, and one driver per group goes free. The Taylor family started it in 1947 in a disused airport hangar. Under-8s can't join.
8 min by car
Glenfiddich Distillery
An attraction
It's 8 minutes' drive on to Glenfiddich, on the northern edge of Dufftown: the visitor car park is the narrow, unsigned left just past the main gates. William Grant built it by hand with his nine children and one stonemason, and its stills first ran on Christmas Day 1887. Book a tour on its site for about 10.30, over-18s only, and allow up to two hours; ask at reception about a drivers' pack. Lunch is 3 minutes away at Dufftown station, in the Sidings Cafe's two railway carriages of 1950.
3 min by car
Balvenie Castle
Balvenie Castle is 3 minutes' drive from Glenfiddich's car park, a little further along Castle Road; it shuts for lunch and opens again at 1.30pm. The Comyn earls of Buchan held it by 1285, Mary, Queen of Scots came here in 1562, and it was left empty after 1718; Hanoverian troops camped in it in 1746. Tickets are cheaper online than at the gate, and some parts can be fenced off for conservation work.
4 min by car
Dufftown
An attraction
Drive 4 minutes into Dufftown, founded in 1817 by James Duff, 4th Earl Fife, round a square whose Clock Tower was built between 1839 and 1847 as the burgh's jail and chambers. WhiskyBrother, the independent whisky shop at 1 Fife Street, is open to 6pm, and BEINN Coffee & Books on Balvenie Street pours coffee until 4pm. Aberlour is 14 minutes home, back past the station and through Craigellachie.
If it rains
Most of today is under cover: the cooperage's viewing gallery, then Glenfiddich's stillhouse and warehouse. Balvenie Castle is the one stop out in the weather, so in a downpour give it less time and the town more: WhiskyBrother on Fife Street, and BEINN Coffee & Books on Balvenie Street, which shuts at 4pm.
Worth a detour
- The Keith & Dufftown Railway
Dufftown station is 3 minutes from the square, on the road home. On the days the Keith and Dufftown Railway runs, a train leaves at 3.30pm for the 11 miles by Drummuir to Keith Town and is back at 5pm. Tickets are singles, £8 for an adult each way, sold online and at the station. The trains usually run at weekends from Easter to late September, and on Fridays too from June. Any train can be cancelled, so look at the railway's calendar for the day before counting on it.
- Linn Falls
With the car back at the bed, Linn Falls is a walk from Aberlour up the Burn of Aberlour through the woods, where the burn drops over two ledges into a dark pool: about twenty minutes each way, and the rocks by the pool are slippery.
Day three
Elgin and Forres
The last morning runs north with the bags in the car, down the A941 through Rothes to Elgin. Glen Moray's tour by the Lossie comes first, then Forres: Benromach's small stillhouse, lunch on the High Street and Dallas Dhu, a Victorian distillery silent since 1983 and now coming back to life.
1 hr 8 min at the wheelAbout 33 miles
30 min by car
Glen Moray Distillery
It's 30 minutes' drive north through Rothes, the home of Glen Grant, to Glen Moray on the Lossie in Elgin, so leave Aberlour by ten to nine. It began as the West Brewery, was turned into a distillery with two stills in 1897, and now belongs to La Martiniquaise. Book the 9.30am tour; under-18s go free, and the coffee shop serves light lunches, soups and cakes after.
23 min by car
Benromach Distillery
Benromach, on the northern edge of Forres, is 23 minutes' drive west on the A96. Built in 1898 and closed in 1983, it was bought by Gordon & MacPhail in 1993 and reopened in 1998, and a small team still runs it by sight and touch, with nothing automated. Book the noon Discovery Tour, an hour with three of Benromach's own to taste.
4 min by car
Cafe 1496
A café
Drive 4 minutes into the middle of Forres for lunch at Cafe 1496, at 79 High Street. It serves breakfast all day, eggs Benedict included, with locally roasted coffee, and the kitchen runs until 3.30pm. It's licensed from 11am, so the passengers can have a glass with lunch while the driver sticks to the coffee. Leave by ten to three for the 3pm tour at Dallas Dhu.
6 min by car
Dallas Dhu Distillery
It's 6 minutes' drive south to Dallas Dhu, built in 1898 by Alexander Edward and Charles Doig. It last made spirit in 1983 and was kept as a museum; Aceo Distillers now run it and mean to distil again. Book a 3pm tour online, 45 minutes with one dram or an hour with three; under-18s are welcome, without the drams. The route ends in Forres, 5 minutes back: the A96 goes west to Inverness and east to Elgin, with Aberlour under an hour back through Elgin and Rothes.
If it rains
Today is all indoors: three distilleries and a café, each with its car park at the door, so rain changes nothing but the view of the Lossie at Glen Moray.
Worth a detour
- Sueno’s Stone
Sueno's Stone stands on Findhorn Road at the far east end of Forres, 2 minutes' drive beyond the café: a Pictish cross-slab 7 metres tall, carved with a battle and what may be a king being crowned, and still linked with the place where it was first raised. Historic Environment Scotland keeps it open all year. Ten minutes there fits between lunch and the 3pm tour; Dallas Dhu is 8 minutes back through the town.
- Findhorn
Findhorn is a village on Findhorn Bay, 10 minutes' drive north of Forres. Walk by the water there before the road on.
Where to eat
Kula Coffee Hut, a café in Duffus.
Photographs by Geoffrey Mann, Glenfarclas Distillery, Conor Hennessy Sykes, Glen Moray Distillery Ltd, mkttsn, Angela Williams and Bob via Google