STIRLING - DUNGEONS AND DRAMS

We just spent two nights in Sterling. Besides enjoying the town itself, we saw two Scottish castles that you might recognize from the movies, and visited two distilleries of single malts that you probably wouldn’t recognize.  After these couple of days I’m feeling more immersed in Scotland than before.

Sterling, population around 50000, is much smaller city than either Edinburgh or Glasgow.   At one point in its history, Sterling was the capital of Scotland. It’s obviously an old city, and its less dominated by tourism. It feels a lot more like a real city at work than Edinburgh did.

Our hotel in Sterling was the Colessio, a short walk from the castle. The Colessio is in  an old restored building that used to be a hospital. Now, it has really classy public areas (think 1940’s Hollywood), and good rooms.  Pretty good prices too. Good place to stay.

The first day in Stirling we saw the castle. Stirling Castle sits high above the town and the surrounding countryside, and it overlooks what historically was the first bridge over the River Forth north of Edinburgh, the entry point to the Scottish Highlands. As a result of this strategic location, there’s been a castle here since the 12^th century. It’s the focal point of a lot of Scottish history, in addition to being the royal quarters for Scottish kings and queens.  A lot of the interiors are restored, and we probably spent more time in Sterling Palace than we did in Edinburgh Palace.

The second day in Sterling we rented a car for the day. I drove, and managed to get through the day’s driving on the wrong side of narrow roads with minimal embarrassment. More importantly, no one got hurt, and no damages to property reported.

The first place we went with the car was to Doune Castle, several miles outside of Stirling. Doune Castle is much smaller than Edinburgh or Sterling, built in its current form in the 14^th century by the Duke of Albany. Being in Doune really gives you a feel that you’re walking through the places where life took place in the 14th century.

Doune, because it has a real medieval feel, has been used in the movies and TV multiple times. All of you have probably seen it. It was prominent in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’ It’s served as Winterfell in ‘Game of Thrones’, and it’s been Castle Leoch in ‘Outlander.’

We couldn’t end our sightseeing of the area without paying homage to Single Malts, so we spent the rest of the day touring two small Highland distilleries producing some really good Whisky.

Deanston Distillery is built in an 18^th century cotton mill on the River Teith. When the mill closed in the 1960’s, and the prosperity of the village was threatened, Deanston became a distillery. They still have a cask or two of their early whisky, now 40 years old. You could be the proud owner of a bottle of this 40 year old whisky for around $5,000. You also get a nice bottle and a nice box with it.

It turns out that American whiskey, bourbon specifically, plays a big role in the production of Deanston scotch, as well as other scotches. Deanston ages most of its whiskies in casks from Kentucky bourbon producers. The casks provide much of the flavor and color.

From Deanston, we went to Glencoyne, another single malt producer. Glencoyne is an old distillery that distills its whisky on one side of the road, and ages it on the other side. That road is the dividing line between the Highland whisky district, and the Lowland whiskies. Because it’s distilled in “The Highlands”, Glencoyne is a Highland whisky, which is more desirable to most.

Marty and I left Stirling on Saturday morning on an express train to Glasgow. The train was largely full of teen agers from Stirling and beyond apparently going to Glasgow for the day. Standing room only. Happily, it was a 30 minute ride.

Steve got in from his golf trip in Ireland Saturday afternoon, we got caught up,   and we’re ready to head off tomorrow to the start of the West Highland Way walk at the Bridge of Orchy.