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Thanks to my wonderful customers I had many opportunities to visit a variety of whisky distilleries this season. Scotland may be a small country but it boosts five distinct whisky regions: Speyside, Highland, Lowland, Islay and Campbeltown. My personal favourite has been Islay and still is. Over recent years the number of whisky distilleries have considerably increased, either by re-opening a formerly mothballed place (Rosebank for example) or creating something new.

The Lowlands have quite a number of new ventures. In my own region, Fife, we have Daftmill, who have just a released a stunning 15 year old, Lindores Abbey, Edenmill, Kingsbarns to just name a few.

The Highlands also contributed considerably with Adelphi in Ardnachmurchan, Torabhaig, Glenwyvis and NcNean. The latter being my personal favourite of the newcomers, though I admire Daftmill and hold great respects for Lindores too. In the end this is obviously down to personal taste nothing less nothing more.

Despite taste the distillery experience is very important to me so that my customers can enjoy themselves while visiting.

Most of the distilleries really do make an effort to make you feel welcome and some provide additional services such as pairing your whisky with chocolate, like Glendronach, or food pairing (Lindores). Others add on their beautifully maintained gardens such as GlenGrant.

Like everything else Covid changed the way distillery tours needed to be booked and reduced the numbers of people who could attend. Over the 2022 season gradually things did return to almost normal. Some distilleries remain difficult to access, MacAllan was certainly one of those. Smaller ones such as Aberlour it simply took a little longer to book. Others, such as Edradour, Glencadam and Fettercairn did not open to the public. The latter two are open to visitors again.

Glenfarclas, GlenAllachie and Glenfiddich have made great efforts to accommodate my customers. GlenAllachie is highly recommended for Billy Walker’s special releases.

Islay’s most welcoming distilleries for me were in this order Bunnhabhain, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Kilchoman, Bowmore, Ardbeg. Bruichladdich tours were a bit dissappointing.

Caol Ila was being renovated, Port Ellen not yet open and I failed to visit Ardnahoe.

I always love to come to Campbeltown as all three whisky distilleries are extremely welcoming. Springbank, Kilkerran and the Cadenhead Warehouse Tour are all in the same location and if you can book a manager’s tour with Iain McAlister at GlenScotia I very highly recommend.

The Diageo distilleries generally provide good experiences and I have been enjoying Dalwhinnie in particular. One evening I pulled up to provide my clients with a wee dram at a nice location as the place was closed. The distillery manager happened to walk by with his dog and made it an unforgetable experience for my guests.

The Isle of Skye’s two distilleries: Talisker, Torabhaig and next door Rassaay are fabulous places and produce gorgeous whisky but I never made it there this season.

There is one distillery, Dallas Dhu, which is only a museum.

There are roughly 150 distilleries in Scotland, so clearly too many to mention them all.

Other experiences are available. There are a number of really enjoyable whisky shops, bars and whisky experiences:

Johnnie Walkers in Prince’s Street Edinburgh provides avery American experience:

I hope this little indiv idual overview is something you have enjoyed. Let me know what you think.

2022 was a busy season for Starfish Travel and I was blessed with so many lovely customers who took me all over the country. In winter I focus more on teaching yoga and finally find the time to share someof the 2022 highlights with you.

I would like to introduce you to Britain’s first lending library: Inverpeffray just outside Crieff. Nowadays you would think it is situated very remotely but back in Roman times a strategic road passed right through here. Below you can view the history of the Innerpeffray Library

When we visited we had a passionate book lover as our guide and he was so knowlegdable. He invited my customers to handle an old bible and found the village they were from on an old map

The library started in the nearby church but quickly outgrew the space. Robert Hay Drummond had the current building purposefully constructed in 1762.

The space of the library in its own right makes it well worth a visit. If you add on the knowledge our guide possessed you never want to leave again.

He showed us a selection of miniature books which were almost as fascinating as all the many old books.

Our guide almost drew our attention to an early book on what we would nowadays call depression:

If you require some exercise after spending hours inside because there is so much to see you can enjoy the heritage trail outside:

If you wisj to visit the library you can make it part of a tour with myself:

Contact

You can certainly also just go there yourself. The Library is open for visits Wednesday to Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sundays 2pm – 5pm.

You can finf more information HERE

If you are unable to visit in person perhabs yoiu would enjoy browsing their shop.

Whatever you do Innerpeffray Library is certainly worth supporting

15th October 2022 at Eden Court Theatre organised by Inverness Outlanders

I was lucky enough to get tickets for this event. Work took me to Glasgow that day and on the way there I managed to catch up with a dear friend of mine to break up the journey at least a little. When I arrived I bought Diana Gabaldon’s newest book “Go tell the bees that I am gone” with the intention of having it signed by her. As I had a day of work ahead the next day and about 2 1/2 hrs of driving to reach I home I never did get it signed.

Upon arrival I immediately noticed quite a number of people dressed up in contemporary dresses and learned later the the Eden Court staff all kindly dressed up in 18th century clothes.

I found my seat and instantly got to talk to my lovely neighbours: On the right a true fan who had read all the books starting in 1993 and on the left hand a tourguide originating from Russia.

The event itself could not have been any more enjoyable. It began with reciting the first sentence in the first book in Scots, followed by the TV series song in English, Gaelic and Scots before Sarah Fraser fittingly introduced and interviewed Diana Gabaldon.

Diana was entertaining, funny and really humble. The conversation between her and Sarah was truly engaging and I think even entertaining to anyone who had never heard of Outlander before. Diana provided a deep inside into her writing process and showed so much respect for each and everyone who was brave enough to ask her a question at the Q&A which followed the interview.

Diana also read from her 10th book which was very exiting. The crowd -obviuosly- adored her and I can only fullheartedly agree.

The evening finished in style with City of Inverness Pipe Band taking over every molecule of air in the theatre.

Despite the epic drive this really was an event I would not have wanted to miss. My only regret has been that my friend could not join me.

Read more in the Rosshire Journal

Taking pictures and videos was not permitted during the event so please follow the various links for imagenary! Also, massive thanks to Nancy encouraging me to attend this event!

Arm balance fun & restorative & Nidra session

27th November 2022 1.30 pm at Realm Chiropractic, 52 Crossgate, Cupar with Gwen Joubert & Kirstin Uhlenbrock

Join us for a few hours of joyfully exploring our mental and physical capabilities followed by a soothing session of restorative and Nidra yoga conducted by Gwen.

We are privileged to be able to host this session in the wonderful studio at Realm Chiropratic.

Costs: £25 per person

Get in touch to book 07446112672 or email Kirstin@starfishtravel.scot

Click HERE for nore information

I reported earlier on the tremendous fun to be had when participating in the 2022 Scottish Field Whisky Challenge. The panel of ten was allowed to sample 34 whiskies in total.

In the morning we had a knock out round and after a gorgeous (and much needed) lunch we re-tasted the remaining contenders again to create appropriate tasting notes.

Not only was a fabulous day being so previleged to blind taste all these amazing whiskies but also to meet everyone else on the panel and share our experience with each other.

This month’s Scottish Field Magazine (November 2022) announced the winners, which is always very exiting to the panel as we are not aware what we were tasting on the day. I am happy to annouce that I am quite content with the results, though I have to admit that I knew nothing of the Silver Angel’s Nectar till I found an article in “The Scots Magazine” a few days ago (I added it to the very bottom if you are interested).

On a personal note John Boyle kindly let us try the first bottle of a new Scottish Field Whisky Series, which I bought and shared with my clients who agreed with me that this is a lovely bottling of a Dailuaine distillery which is quite hard to get your hands on.

As most of my clients know I am a bit of a peat head and my natural home for whisky is Islay especially Bunnabhain (Moine!!!!) but I love to try all the Scottish Whisky Industry has to offer.

Curiostity might kill the cat but only if you consume too much at any one tasting. Drink responsibly and enjoy!

Last but not least I obviously offer whisky tasting tours all over Scotland for more click below:

Contact

I was fortunate enough to be part of the panel in 2019’s Scottish Field Whisky Challenge as well, click the link to read that article. You can apply for 2023 if you like the idea!

Please find below also the full article taken from the online edition of the Scottish Field Magazine

Harvest Fest at Falkland was blessed with beautiful weather so participants could meander between venues in bright sunshine. The event had a fascinating programme and my only regret was that I could not attend all it had to offer. Some of it was filmed so hopefully I will be able to delve into all I missed.

Ninian Stuart started the session in the big tent

This morning session welcomed Jenny Anderson from Really Regenerative, Professor Seaton Baxter (Natural Design) and Gordon Mole, Head of Business and Employability, Fife Council as speakers and each of them as well as Ninian highlighted intresting points. I especailly feel in love with the phrase “the mind can be anywhere but the feet need to be somewhere.

I also wished I was able of shorthand as Professor Seaten Baxter left with an amazing poem. He actually invited the audience to write a poem as the act of doing so engages one with one’s own emotion. I did try this last night together with my boyfriend which was a lovely experiement.

I ventured on to listen to Joe FItzpatrick’s “Revelations of archaeology of Falkland Hill’ which was fascinating and very engaging, especially as we were allowed to examine some of the finds. I also love and adore the engagement of local people.

The lunch in itself was to die for, both main dish and cake and not to mention the amazing apple juice produced onsite.

After lunch I attended Gary Young (The Mindfulness Enterprise )& Madhu Mastan’s session “The healing & restorative power of mindfully connecting with nature”, which was insightful and also fun. Madhu, I will do some drumming!

If you attended any of the other sessions let me know and I will happily add your input here.

The exhibitors were also well selected: Reforesting Scotland, The Scottish Sawmill Services, Newburgh Handloom Weavers , The Falkland Society and the Falkland Estate itself promoting their barley which is being used by NcNean Whisky Distillery.

Also check out the Chidren’s Parliament for information on how the future generations are involved in the power of place that Falkland is. Not to mention their poems page.

Falkland truly spreads its magic: everything is connected, everything needs to go somewhere, nature knows best and it is the place to be.

I also met some amazing people and feel real gratitude for all I was able to experience.

I have been blessed with a very busy summer and much more importantly with diverse, interesting and truly lovable customers from all over the world. Including one lovely dog!

My whisky inspired tours brought me to Mull of Kintyre- or rather Campbeltown, several times to Islay and almost uncountable number times into the lovely Speyside.

The tastes of customers varied widely but on conclusion: If you do not like whisky you simply have not found the right one for you.

For some of my valued clients this meant that matching whisky with chocolate made all the difference and others aspired a taste for the heavily peated by adding cheese or cure sausage to the experience.

Many wee drams were had at a beautiful spot and that is just how it should be.

Equally popular have been Outlander tours which offer almost unlimited options with over 200 film locations with the six seasons out at the moment.

Some of my clients knew much more about Outlander than I ever will but I am indeed willing to learn from you too (this is a big part of what I love about this job!).

I was very lucky to offer some private tours at Glencorse estate (Thank you, Sarah!) and Falkland palace with the current keeper (Thank you, Ninian!). Both options were much loved by you.

Most of our tours were a mixture of what Scotland stands for: breathtaking landscapes, packed with history and innovation, meeting Scotland’s ever helpful people, divine food and drink experiences and most of all emerge oneselve into solitude, nature and wildlife.

To keep it interesting I had a number of one day (occassionally even half day) tours from cruiseships as well as tours as long as ten days. All this adds not only to your experiences but also mine. Each of these tours offer a different connection with you.

Group sizes also varied and on one occassion it numbered 13 plus 2 drivers (Thank you, Jim from Alba Private Hire!). This was a little out of my comfort zone, especially as it was relatively early in the season and booking restaurants and accommodation was still quite an issue. It did, however, work even though not everybody was always entirely happy as we catered for ages from 16 to 70.

I am very honoured by each of you placing your trust in me to make your travel memorable and fun.

Lastly, I learnt a lot from all of you. Thank you!

Whether you educated me on your countries, history, beliefs, traditions and culture or provided me with bourbon to try and learn about its creation process, whether you challenged me on vegetarian options, antihistamins, accommodation requirements it has always been fun and has certainly added to my portofolio for future guests.

With the quieter season approaching I will still be out on tour but I will also turn my focus back on practising and teaching yoga, including some workshops. I do apologise to my yoga crowd for not being able to teach all my usual classes throughout the season. I have been very lucky to get help from Gwen (Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!), who is much loved by you.

I am also planning some trips to researchs add-ons for next season, so watch this space!

I would also like to apologise to all of you who I could not accommodate this year. I take ad-hoc bookings but am lucky enough to have most of my clients booking in advance. I will fit you in on short notice if I can.

As soon as the season kicked in my blog posts as well as social media twiddled away. I was and still am just running with it. I have been loving every moment of it and had so many amazingly interesting people joining me.

It feels so good to get back to “normal”, being able to engage with people and have a good time together exploring beautiful Scotland.

Things, however, are not how they were prior to Covid. Businesses everywhere are short of staff and the remaining members of each business do their utmost to keep it up.

One roughly 40 bedroom hotel was run by two full-time members of staff and two part-time employees, who were attending the reception, the bar, the restaurant, the breakfast and the cleaning. They were totally overworked but still remained amazingly friendly.

I heard elsewhere that Ullapool’s hospitality businesses were sharing the few employees they still had left and agreed to close shop certain days of the week to make it all work.

Whether this is due to the pandemic or Brexit or a mixture of both is really not relevant. The fact is that people on holiday are not well catered for by overworked members of restaurant or hotel teams. Not to mention how awful the situation is for the workers themselves. You simply cannot serve the public with a smile if you are worked into the ground.

My whisky endevaours lead me to all five of Scotland’s whisky regions and Islay and Campbelltown were outstanding.

Speyside was lacking staff and booking got difficult as spaces were taken well in advance. Some exceptions of the rule proved to be: GlenAllachie, Glendronach and Glenfarclas. Glenfiddich would always acccommodate you as well. Thank you all so much! This is obviously not an objective analysis as I have not been to all Speyside distilleries.

There is one in the area and (if you know me you will know which one) which simply does not appear to be interested in visitors.

Some were sadly closed, such as Edradour, Glencadam, Fettercairn and Talisker. The latter two are open again I understand.

Dalwhinnie always accommodates visitors and there are two newcomers I really adore: Lindores and NcNean. Both are providing fantastic whisky and offer a really unique experience.

Remote restaurants were occcassionally difficult to find especially if the group was bigger than three. However, wherever I have been the food was outstanding and the staff were amazing.

I have heard of numerous businesses who had to close, most of them I will really miss and I do hope that there is a solution to the staff shortages and also the spiralling costs of living.

Scotland is such an amazing place, always interesting, never boring, sometimes rough but always breath-takingly beautiful.

Keep up the good work! Here is one tourguide who truly appreciates all your hard work!

I was very honoured to be selected as part of the panel for the 2022 Scottish Field Whisky Challenge which took place on 29th July 2022.

This year’s challenge entailed the blind tasting of 38 whiskies. After introductions the morning started with a knock out tasting to limit the number of whiskies for the afternoon tasting. It was lovely sharing tasting notes with so many real whisky aficionados, which truly enhanced the experience. It was also quite difficult to “spit” some of these amazing whiskies but everyone wanted to keep a clear head to write the tasting notes in the afternoon.

Scottish Field provided a lovely lunch so we all felt sober enough to face the afternoon tasting with detailed tasting notes and ratings to be decided.

It was a glorious summer day in Edinburgh so after we had all handed in our ratings and tasting notes, we ventured out to enjoy the sunshine and cocktails before we said our goodbyes and headed home.

I still have no idea which whiskies I was allowed to sample and await that revelation with great exitement.

The entire experience will be rounded up with the awards dinner which will also be hosted in the Sharaton on 28th of October 2022. Surely, more whisky to look forward to!

Scotland has in excess of 3000 castles, many can be visited and I will feature a few of my recent visits and of course all time favourites, such as Stirling or Ediburgh or Eilen Dunan Castle.

Cawdor Castle is privately owned and very well maintained. It is a true pleasure to visit. Be my guest and view these lovely insights: