A whisky walk. Craigellachie - Aberlour - Dufftown - Craigellachie circular walk

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I planned all week so that I wouldn't have any work to do. I was even organised enough to get my rucksack sorted out on Friday night so the morning dithering was cut down. The walk was nearly eleven miles and takes in some of the most iconic malt whisky destinations in the world. I suppose to a certain extent I take the fact that I live slap bang in the middle of the highest concentration of malt whisky distilleries in the world for granted. It's a great walk for a whisky enthusiast and appropriately starts and finishes at our local - the Highlander Inn at Craigellachie.

The Highlander has an enormous whisky collection and is well worth a visit if you are passing through.

From here, the walk follows the Speyside Way 2 miles to Aberlour - home of Aberlour distillery. Again, well worth a visit but be warned that the chances of finishing the walk after a tour of the still are slim. The tour takes over two hours and finishes with 5 drams - it's a real education!

Macallan distillery in the middle ground

From Aberlour we headed up the hill and over what is locally known as The Gownie. This is an old Scottish Rights of Way route and is well signposted. You get some brilliant views back down the Spey Valley from here and across to Macallan distillery. The track takes you through some thickly populated spruce plantations and over into the next glen where you arrive in what many people regard as the malt whisky capital of the world.

Dufftown is home to too many distilleries to mention and is somewhat of a mecca for malt whisky fans. We are not particular fans of the most well known - Glenfiddich but what I will say is that it has a brilliant restaurant at the visitor centre and the ladies toilets there have to be seen to be believed.

Ladies loo at Glenfiddich

We rejoined what used to be a spur on the Speyside Way here and walked back to Craigellachie. It was a great day out and it just goes to prove that you don't have to go far to enjoy some great scenery and great walking.