Scotland, Part 1: Inverness and Speyside

Bobby’s mom Kim and step-dad Ed came out to visit us last week. We decided that we didn’t want to do anything too travel-intensive, so we opted to stay in the UK for this trip. We wanted to start the adventure with a train ride to Inverness, Scotland, but, after learning that it takes 8 hours on a train to get to Inverness, decided to fly instead.

Inverness is known as the gateway to the Scottish Highlands. Most people begin their journeys here and go on to explore northern Scotland and the Isle of Sky. It’s also very popular because it’s right next to Loch Ness! We opted to drive south after Inverness, but couldn’t resist the opportunity to drive around Loch Ness and look for its most famous inhabitant: Nessie. The weather didn’t really cooperate with us, but Inverness and Loch Ness were beautiful all the same.

Some pictures around Loch Ness

I found Nessie!

After Loch Ness, we decided to drive down to Edinburgh. We took a little detour along the way to visit Ballandoch Castle and the Speyside Whisky Trail.

As far as castles go, I didn’t find Ballandoch all that impressive. It was rather small and, well, just not very castle-y. It is still privately owned, which seemed awesome to me beforehand because the family still actually lives in the castle! However, once we were inside, the fact that it was still inhabited made it kind of creepy. There were family photographs everywhere and the furniture didn’t seem very historically accurate (because, really, who wants to actually sit on a 14th century sofa?). I felt like I was sneaking around someone’s house instead of exploring a castle- which I guess is exactly what I was doing.

To Ballandoch’s credit, however, it did have some very beautiful gardens!


After raiding the private home of a wealthy family for awhile, we continued on to the Speyside Whisky Trail. Ed wanted to visit Glenlivet, the only Scotch whisky distillery he’d every heard of, and that’s exactly where we ended up! We were led on a nice little free tour around the distillery by and elderly gentleman who obviously had no idea how much Ed, Kim and Bobby already knew about alcohol production. Bobby and I have visited quite a few breweries in our travels and Kim and Ed brew their own beer. I was excited because, while I find brewery tours HORRIBLY boring, this was a distillery, and maybe it was more exciting? Wrong. It turns out that whisky is made exactly the same way as beer (the first step to whisky is infact beer), you just distil it over and over until a lot of the water is gone. Or atleast I think that’s what the guy was saying, I don’t know, I zoned out due to too much standing and boredom.

However, whether it be brewery and distillery, you always put up with the tour because you know at the end there will be the magical prize of free booze. We were presented with 3 different “drams” of Glenlivet whisky at the end of the tour. A 12-year-old (the youngest they sell), an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old cask-strength (aka, not watered down at all). I grabbed my free glass, took a whiff, and realized in a moment of utter disappointment that there was no way I was ever going to be able to convince my body to swallow something that smelled like that. It turns out that Kim is also not a fan of whisky, so Ed and Bobby got to drink all of our free samples.


After Glenlivet, we headed south, leaving the highlands on our way to Edinburgh.

Tips from Part 1 of our trip:

1. Inverness is totally skipable. I guess you should go if you want to see Loch Ness and this is definitely the best jumping-off-point for the highlands, but as a city by itself, it doesn’t have much to offer.
2. If you’re going to try and do whisky distillery tours, don’t choose to do them on a Sunday. Most are either not open at all or close early.
3. I wouldn’t recommend Ballandoch castle- choose to visit a government owned castle or one held in trust instead. It’s the same price and you won’t feel like you’re invading someone’s privacy!