B&W in Orkney

[Ishpuini]

Hello all,

A lot of B&W posts at the moment, so I'll contribute to the trend. It just so happens I'm recently back from my annual trip to Scotland (with a whisky tasting group), and since distillery interiors are mostly lit by ugly artifical lighting, I always work in B&W for the shots covering these trips.

This year we went to Orkney, a group of islands just north of mainland Scotland, and home to two distilleries: Scapa, which cannot be visited unfortunately, and Highland Park, Scotland's most northern whisky distillery. Highland Park was the only distillery that we visited, so that left some time to visit some of the other sights.

Yesnaby cliffs

Neolithic village of Skara Brae

Ring of Brodgar

Hope you like them...

Wim

--
Antwerp, Belgium, GMT+1

 

[Ishpuini]

I have only had the pleasure of one trip to Orkney which was on business and lasted just two short days. I remember being the only passenger on the plane on the way up from Edinburgh! Whisky certainly got drunk and my faint memory is that it was naturally Highland Park. The hangover early next morning was dissipated by the ferry ride across Scapa Flow to Flotta on a perfect summer's morning. Just sublime! ( A Para Handy reference there)

We stayed on Orkney and the islands connected to it via the Churchill barriers (our hotel on Burray and a walk on South Ronaldsay). But we saw enough of the Scapa Flow to be able to imagine the magnificence of a crossing.

My first visit to a distillery was as a schoolboy while doing a project on the chemistry of distillation! Ballantines in Dumbarton very generously gave a few of us an extended tour of the distillery with lots of technical background, no samples though! We made our own in the chemistry lab, purely for research purposes of course.

In the 90's I took part in a Scottish project investigating new ways to make whisky barrels. There was a threat from a proposal in the US to allow re-use of Bourbon casks which would have caused serious supply issues for the Scottish whisky industry. Alternate sources of oak were investigated along with heat treatment of barrel staves to "cook" them giving custom flavours. A lot of the current trend for specialist barrel finishes for whisky flowed from that project.

Apparently the threat is still there. Actually, at Highland Park our hosts expressed some serious concern about this. After all, there's a reason why whisky matures in saturated casks. New casks would react way to aggressively with the alcohol, changing the taste in a drastic fashion. If the US would be able to re-use their casks, prices for used (or prepared) casks would no doubt go up, and so would the price of whisky.

I have a very catholic taste in malts and enjoy them all, Highland, Isles and Lowland styles. Current favourite is one from close to where I grew up - Auchentoshan 21yo.

There are whiskies for every taste indeed. We visited Auchentoshan 2 years ago, at the end of a trip to Islay. Perhaps my palate had been compromised by too much peat, but none of the Auchentoshan expressions we tasted made a lasting impression on me. It was an interesting visit (albeit slightly too orchestrated, seeing we're used to more personalized tours) seeing their threefold distillery process (all other Scottish malts are distilled twice).

And thanks for the lovely photos too before I forget what stirred these memories.

My pleasure!

tx!! Wim

 

[Dédéjr]

Great pictures Wim. My mother is orcadian and I lived there from five to fifteen years old.

Took my wife home in 2011, hope you don't mind me putting some of my pictures here' although in colour and not as good as your's!



I visited Highland as a teenager with a friend, great place. A bar here where i live in france has often both orkney whiskies in stock.



Cheers

André


Italian Chapel






Ring of Brodgar






Skara brae

 

[Ishpuini]

Great pictures Wim. My mother is orcadian and I lived there from five to fifteen years old.

Took my wife home in 2011, hope you don't mind me putting some of my pictures here' although in colour and not as good as your's!

I visited Highland as a teenager with a friend, great place. A bar here where i live in france has often both orkney whiskies in stock.

Cheers

André

Tx for adding these shots offering a different view on things!

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to stop and look at the Italian Chapel during our trip. We passed by it a few times on our way from the hotel (Sands Hotel in Burray) to the main island, but there was never time (or motivation ) left to visit it. Personally I would have stopped for a few moments, but when traveling in a group one has to accommodate... It will have to wait for my next visit some day...

grtz, Wim

 

[Gee Emm]

Great photos, love the B&W.

I was only there for a day trip almost exactly seven years ago ...

Kirkwell ruins, Orkney Islands

Skara Brae - the inside of one of the 'huts'

Stone Age burial cairn, Orkney Islands



... and what is a thread of Scotland photos without the obligatory Skye (probably my favourite photo from the trip)

Sunset, Portree harbour, Isle of Skye

 

[Dédéjr]

Hope you get up to the italian chapel someday, well worth a look.

Thank you for the photo's allways nice to see my old home.

cheers

André

 

[Joseph Tainter]

Well done.

Joe

 

[Ishpuini]

Great photos, love the B&W.

Tx!

I was only there for a day trip almost exactly seven years ago ...

Skara Brae - the inside of one of the 'huts'

Nice shot! Here's my version of that same point-of-view:

... and what is a thread of Scotland photos without the obligatory Skye (probably my favourite photo from the trip)

We didn't get round to visiting Skye yet. But Talisker is a whisky we all like, so I imagine it won't take too many years before we go there with our little group. Tx for bringing it to my mind.

Wim

--
Antwerp, Belgium, GMT+1

 

[philzucker]

Nice ones, Wim!

Tx Phil! Sorry for the late reply, been away for the week-end.

Me too, no probs ...

Do you have any pics from the interior of the distillery?

Here you go:

Love the malting floor shot, and nice treatment of the peat burner pic. Thanks a lot for posting all of them - much appreciated!

Hope you enjoyed the tour! ;-)

Definitely did, Wim!

Phil