The Echo Observer

A dram of spirit in every glass! Kickstarted the right way. A Highland Celebration of heritage and history. A dram in each hand and a hearty smile. The whisky festival began with a bang! Whisky tours on for most distilleries for the festival almost every hour, some of the more specialised tours were booked far before Christmas and were twice a day. Along with some art exhibitions. With 91 thousand pounds worth of tickets being sold within the first hour of sales, it was obvious that the festival would have plenty of attention. With people coming from over 20 different countries to participate in Tastings to the local events. On Thursday, Aberlour was wet and rainy the spirits of those around the complete opposite.  With the scout Hall being used for the sale of whisky trinkets, whisky and other items given by distilleries the adventure started. Already packed in the morning barely 10 minutes in. The light reflected on tasting glasses, whiskies, panels of fired wood f...

I live outside of a small town about 24 miles from the coast, in the north-east of Scotland. Where the grass is painted green in the summer, drowned in the autumn and buried in the winter. The days are long in half of the year and the days seem to do whatever they want towards the end of the annual cycle. All in all where I live is pretty normal; children go to school during the day then hang out with their friends, the local clichés doing whatever they want to friend, foe or town. The weather is as unpredictable as the people, their emotions, daily lives and routines throwing everyone in their surrounding area off of their game. The town just down the road the town sits upon a hill, its outskirts surrounded by a variety of farms, green lichen filled forests, old crack packed roads, shiny Distilleries where the local economy seems to be driven and a small train station that many of the locals use on the weekend. There are small shops, cafes and restaurants within the town. A beaut...