Scotland - Day 4

Today I spent the morning exploring St. Andrews. It's a fairly small town, but has some quite interesting remains of an old cathedral and castle. At one point in history, it was the Christian capital of Scotland. Some important relics, including some of the supposed remains of St. Andrew had been brought to St. Andrews, which also made it a key destination for pilgrimages. St. Andrew, by the by, is the patron saint of Scotland. If you'll recall, the Scottish flag is blue with a white X. But the X is actually a diagonal cross representing the martyrdom of St. Andrew, who was crucified diagonally at his request, as he did not feel worthy of being crucified in the same manner as Christ.

The castle remains were not terribly exciting, although they are right along the shore and so made for some nice photographs. However, the castle grounds also contain an ancient siege tunnel. At one point when the castle was under siege, the attackers had attempted to borrow under the castle with the hopes of laying explosives to bring the down the castle walls. What's particularly interesting is that the men in the castle heard the mining underway and began digging what is referred to as a counter-siege tunnel. After a couple missteps, they were able to connect with the siege tunnel and foil the plot. The cool thing about this is that the tunnels are still there, and you can climb down into them. You start from the castle side, where the counter-siege tunnel was dug. It was clearly done frantically, as it is very small - you practically have to crawl through it. But then you come to the original siege tunnel, which is quite wide and even had steps carved into it. Unfortunately, they've walled off the opening to that end, so you then have to crawl your way back out. It's not terribly long (it's amazing how close to the castle walls they started digging this tunnel), but it's still not for the feint of heart or claustrophobic. In fact, there's a big warning sign that says you may explore, but at your own risk. What particularly impressed me about the siege tunnel was that it, and the counter tunnel, were "dug" into solid rock. It would have actually been quite an effort requiring a number of tools and a bit of time. You can even still see the first two missteps of the counter-siege tunnel before they discovered the right direction to intercept the attackers.

My next stop for the day was Pitlochry, where I planned to spend the night. I decided I would take back roads to explore the countryside. Pitlochry is considered a sort of gateway to the Highlands. As I got closer along the back roads, they got narrower and narrower, until finally they didn't even have a dividing line for oncoming traffic and are barely wide enough for 2 cars. In fact, it got to the point where I was slamming on the breaks and veering as far off the road as possible. (This brings up another issue with driving on the opposite side of the car - I have a good sense of how far a car extends to my right, but very little sense of how far it extends to my left. It's not a transferable "skill", like shifting with the other hand, but rather a spacial sense that takes time to learn and hone. This made getting over as far as possible, without driving the car into a muddy bank, or worse, a stone wall, rather nerve wracking). To raise the stakes a bit, I started encountering one lane bridges that are raised, so incredibly hard to see what is coming the other way. And finally, I entered an area with unfenced grazing land for sheep. I'd read that sometimes sheep will wander onto the road so you have to be careful, but I didn't realize there weren't any fences, so the sheep could easily wander onto the road. They seems to like to stand or lay down right next to the road, making you wonder if they'll suddenly become suicidal right as you pass. In any case, narrow roads, driving from the right seat, and sheep so close you can reach out and pet them made for harrowing drive in Pitlochry. The whole experience made a sign I'd seen earlier in the day that much more ridiculous. It had read: "Watch out for red squirrels" with a giant explanation point below it for added effect. Really, squirrels!? I really couldn't are less about a squirrel wandering into my path. Good riddance is about all I'd think.

Upon my safe arrival in Pitlochry, I made my way to Edradour distillery. It prides itself as Scotland's smallest distillery, where they still do it the old fashioned way. Only 3 people are actually directly involved in making the whisky. They do, however, have a very nice tour, where they show you most of the facilities, including their barrel storage facility, which included a 1966 barrel from the famous Glenfarclas distillery which they plan to age 5 more years. At that point, it will be 50 years old, and worth maybe 2,000 pounds a bottle. With roughly half of the whisky evaporated at that point, I still calculate that one barrel's dollar value to be somewhere around half a million, at the low end.

At the end of the tour, they take you to a store where you can buy all sorts of whisky. Edradour is reputedly rather difficult to find in the US, but it is possible (and frankly, it's only rated as mediocre), so I opted to buy one of their more unusual options, a cask strength 14 year old whisky that spent part of its life aging in barrels that had previously been used for Barolo (one of Italy's finest wines). As a whisky ages, it becomes smoother, and most base level options are aged 8-10 years, so this one should hopefully be fairly smooth, and unique. (Cask strength means that it hasn't been watered down to 40-43% alcohol for mass distribution; instead, it's more like ~54% and will benefit from adding water upon tasting).

While in Pitlochry, I grabbed lunch at a local deli. I asked for a recommendation, and was given an absolutely phenomenal sandwich featuring sliced duck. I'm not sure I've ever had sliced duck on a sandwich like this, but I would do it again in a second. Overall, it's a charming little town. Oddly though, on my way back from dinner at Victoria's, I wandered past a little takeout Chinese restaurant. Suddenly, I felt like I was back in Philly. It was very odd. It certainly does not fit in this charming little town at the edge of the Highlands, although it at least didn't have a bunch of shady characters hanging around.