Today we are in the pretty little hamlet of Glenkinchie just a little southeast of east of Edinburgh. About 90 people live here. It’s a little bit unusual. because unlike the surrounding towns and villages which are all built from stone, here it’s all red brick. Not sure why this should be but it certainly applies to the distillery in the heart of the village which is entirely made of red brick. It’s owned by the drinks giant Diageo who use it as the “Lowland”corner of what they call the “four corners distilleries” The other three are Clynelish (Highland) Cardhu (Speyside) and Caol Ila (Island) and they are all used in the making of the Johnnie Walker range of blended whiskies.
Battle of the distilleries
We have a love hate relationship with Diageo. About thirty years ago the company also owned our local Rosebank Distillery just a few hundred yards from our home in Falkirk. It was generally seen as the King of Lowland whiskies, however they closed it in favour of Glenkinchie … booo! It fell into a sorry state. This year, however, there were fanfares as Rosebank was opened again. Bought by Ian MacLeod Distillers who spent £millions returning it to its former glory. The town also has the added bonus of another brand new Falkirk Distillery. All is forgiven, hence we thought this rival might be worthy of a visit.
part of the visitor centre restaurant
Becoming legal
It began in 1825 by a couple of local farmers presumably trying o diversify away from farming. They ran it for about 12 years as Milton distillery before deciding to make it legal and renaming it Glenkinchie after the little river Kinchie which runs past it.
looking out on to the gardens
Scones
Distillery tours are of no particular interest. They’re all much of a muchness so we decided to leave this one out. Scones, of course are another matter and we had spotted some in their café restaurant earlier. The staff were very friendly and helpful and they so had us sorted with some fruit scones and coffee. No cream but there was plenty butter and jam served on nice crockery with unusual bronze cutlery. Everything was well presented and although it wasn’t a topscone it was very enjoyable nevertheless.
Johnnie Walker is the world’s biggest selling scotch whisky brand with 205 million litres going down the hatch every year. That’s a lot of whisky and a fair amount of that must be made here at Glenkinchie. It is marketed under different coloured labels, red, black, green, blue etc. we’re not sure what the difference is except to say that ‘blue’ is four times the price of ‘red’, a marketing triumph!
Troubled
We’re raising a glass of Glenkinchie to toast the health of all our readers in this strange and troubled world. The ICC (International Criminal Court) has issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Not before time many might say. He is now classed as a ‘fugitive’ along with Mad Vlad Putin. We live in peculiar times when the leaders of Israel and Russia are international fugitives and America’s President Elect is a convicted felon. Another dram please and make it a large one!
Goodness, it’s over nine years since we last wrote about Palmerston’s, here in lovely Dunkeld. In the 9th century there was a union by marriage between the Scots and the Picts and King Kenneth MacAlpin made Dunkeld the capital of his new Scotland. The village is strategically placed at the entrance to a pass leading to the Highlands and sits on the north bank of the River Tay. In fact it is just upstream from Ballathie House where we were earlier this month. On the opposite bank of the river is the village of Birnam, made famous by Shakespeare for its mobile forest.
A witch’s word
Apparently it put the jitters up the villainous Macbeth when he was informed that Birnam Wood was moving towards his fortress at Dunsinane. After all, several witches had told him he was safe as long as that highly unlikely event ever came to pass … and who wouldn’t believe a witch? However, he was right to be jittery, oh yes! It was actually the English army that had cut down the branches and were using them to camouflage their stealthy approach. Suffice to say, Macbeth’s head ends up in a different place to the rest of him. Is that a suitable ending for a villain? That was way back in the 11th century and we don’t have villains like that any more … or do we?
But before we go into that let’s look at something altogether more wholesome, Palmerston’s scones. Nine years ago you will clearly remember that they were a little unusual. They were baked in a large round then cut into triangular quadrants. Well, they still are and they had four different types for us to choose from! Somewhat unenterprisingly we decided on fruit scones, or sultana as it’s known in these parts.
They’re very friendly here. Straight off we were asked if we wanted butter and jam or cream and jam? Very sensible. We opted for cream and jam! When the scones arrived at our table, however we had cream, jam and two different types of butter. Not so sensible. As you know we’re partial to a crunchy exterior and a nice soft fluffy interior. These couldn’t be described in that way but nevertheless they were absolutely delicious with lots of big juicy sultanas … topscone!
Is that light at the end of the tunnel?
Let’s get back to villains! All in all it’s seems to have been a good day for us here in Dunkeld but a bad day for villains … hurrah! The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his associates. They’ve done the same for the Hamas resistance. However, there’s been a similar warrant for Putin’s arrest since 2023 so don’t expect these new warrants to make a whole lot of difference any time soon. Perhaps more importantly Norway, Ireland and Spain have announced their intention to recognise Palestinian statehood … hurrah again! This is what is needed to get people talking seriously about a two state solution. Also, Paula Vennells, a priest but seen by many as a villain, starts her submission to the inquiry into the horrors of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
UK style democracy
Unfortunately this is also the week when Rishi Sunak labelled people who want Scotland to be an independent country again (that’s at least half the people of Scotland) as extremists. A danger to the UK. This, in spite of the fact that no-one in the 100 years or so of Scotland’s passionate bid to regain its self-respect has suffered so much as a nose-bleed. We thought Trump was pretty stupid among political figures but he may have competition.
Perhaps more serious than all of that, the last time we were here Palmerston’s had just returned from the World Jam Championships with a bunch of prize certificates. Sadly we were informed that these Jampionshios, have been discontinued since the COVID pandemic. Happily you can still get their excellent jam here.
Today we are in the pretty little hamlet of Glenkinchie just a little southeast of east of Edinburgh. About 90 people live here. It’s a little bit unusual. because unlike the surrounding towns and villages which are all built from stone, here it’s all red brick. Not sure why this should be but it certainly applies to the distillery in the heart of the village which is entirely made of red brick. It’s owned by the drinks giant Diageo who use it as the “Lowland”corner of what they call the “four corners distilleries” The other three are Clynelish (Highland) Cardhu (Speyside) and Caol Ila (Island) and they are all used in the making of the Johnnie Walker range of blended whiskies.
Scones, of course are another matter and we had spotted some in their café restaurant earlier. The staff were very friendly and helpful and they so had us sorted with some fruit scones and coffee. No cream but there was plenty butter and jam served on nice crockery with unusual bronze cutlery. Everything was well presented and although it wasn’t a topscone it was very enjoyable nevertheless. 
Scones, of course are another matter and we had spotted some in their café restaurant earlier. The staff were very friendly and helpful and they so had us sorted with some fruit scones and coffee. No cream but there was plenty butter and jam served on nice crockery with unusual bronze cutlery. Everything was well presented and although it wasn’t a topscone it was very enjoyable nevertheless. 
The ICC (International Criminal Court) has issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Not before time many might say. He is now classed as a ‘fugitive’ along with Mad Vlad Putin. We live in peculiar times when the leaders of Israel and Russia are international fugitives and America’s President Elect is a convicted felon. Another dram please and make it a large one!
The ICC (International Criminal Court) has issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu. Not before time many might say. He is now classed as a ‘fugitive’ along with Mad Vlad Putin. We live in peculiar times when the leaders of Israel and Russia are international fugitives and America’s President Elect is a convicted felon. Another dram please and make it a large one!
