Kasey's Trip Recap: Scolty Hill and MacAllan Distillery

After a busy weekend in Edinburgh, I thought it best for us to have a low key couple of days to allow us both to re-coop! After sleeping in on Tuesday and picking up Angus from the kennel we headed out to Banchory to climb Scolty Hill. Scotland is notorious for beautiful hikes and I wanted Kasey to get a little taste of my favorite activity in Scotland. Since I hadn't done Scolty Hill yet, this was a treat for both of us. It's only about 2 miles round trip but it's straight up with a gradual decline back down. And as you can see, there are some beautiful views of Deeside and Banchory once you make it to the top.

Making our way to the top; I love the heather that comes with summertime

Beautiful Deeside

Village of Banchory

On Wednesday Kasey, my friend, Laine, and I headed Northwest to the land of whisky distilleries. One of the best things about Kasey's trip was that most of the things I had planned, I hadn't done either, so it was exciting for both of us.  I visited the small Royal Lochnagar Distillery a few months ago but this was my first 'big' one and it really is interesting to learn about the process. It makes you appreciate why the good stuff costs so much and why you don't ruin it with Diet Coke or Sprite :-)

We made a quick stop right before the distillery to get some shots of the beautiful Craigellachie Bridge spanning over the River Spey (which is the river that supplies the distillery).

Once we arrived at the distillery, we still had some time before the tour so we made our way around the estate to have a photo session with the oh so photogenic Highland coos (Scottish word for cows). These bovines slightly resemble the Texas Longhorn and we were all in agreement that they should adopt this as their new mascot. However, Laine was right in saying that these thick furred creatures probably couldn't stand the Texas heat! I'm not even sure I'll be able to stand the Texas heat again after living here.

After our photo session with the coos we made our way to the tour to enjoy our two wee drams of MacAllan's finest!

Another fun day in the books and the week was starting to fly! Our next stop was St. Andrews....home of golf and the beginning of Kate and Wills' love story!