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THE WHISKY TRAIL
A taste of the water of life
Over 40 whisky distilleries welcome visitors during the summer
and many of these stay in Inverness lodgings. The art of distilling came to
Scotland more than 1,000 years ago. It was brought by the Celts, but refined by
the Celtic Christian missionaries, who found a land blessed in abundance with
all the natural elements to make this unique noble product - and they found the
people only too willing to learn the mysterious art.
The ancient Celts gave the name Water of Life to the precious liquid they
distilled because of its magical power to revive tired limbs, dispel the cold
and lift fallen spirits. They called it Uisge Beatha and from "uisge" comes the
anglicised version "whisky".
The Highlands of Scotland have clear spring water, great fields of peat, healthy
crops of barley and pure Highland air.
The first written record of whisky is in 1494 when Friar John Cor was supplied
with 8 "bolls of malt ... wherewith to make aqua vitea". A boll was an old Scots
measure.
King James IV is recorded as having enjoyed his dram in 1506, and by 1690 the
Scottish Parliament made reference to a distillery. In those early days all
Scotch whisky was malt, it was not until the early 1860's that blending was
developed, a judicious mixing of different malts and whisky distilled from
grain.
There are two distilleries close to Millwood House -
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