Legendary Northern Distilleries Tour
Description
Why not explore into the stunningly beautiful Easter Ross and Sutherland regions, with its breath-taking scenery and wonderful places so steeped in history and culture? Discover some of the awe inspiring “hidden gems” included in this the fascinating itinerary, created to deliver a unique experience for those visiting this wonderful part of the world. Tour Highlights: •Glenmorangie Distillery, Ord Distillery and Balblair Distillery. HOWEVER, any one of these Distilleries can be changed for Clynelish Distillery (Johnny Walker) if you prefer. Read more about Dunrobin Castle and the Pictish Trail from Inverness Bus Tour 2020 in Viator website PLEASE NOTE: GLENMORANGIE DISTILLERY OPENING TIMES ARE November - May Monday – Friday, 10am, 11am & 3pm May Monday - Friday, 10am, 11am, 2pm & 3pm June, July & August Monday - Sunday, every 30 minutes, 10am - 4pm September & October Monday - Friday, 10am, 11am, 2pm & 3pm
Tour Options
Itinerary
The Ord distillery dates back to 1838 it is the only single malt distillery on the Black Isle. The water for the mashing was taken from the Cuckoo Well and employed 18 people in the early days. Now it has 7 was stills and is owned by Diageo now the water come from the White Burn.
Founded in 1790 and according to records, this is the fourth oldest distillery in Scotland after Glenturret, Strathisla, and Bowmore, Balblair creates its malt whisky slowly, and it is then matured at the distillery in the tradtional dunnage warehouses on earthen floors. The visitors centre provides a welcoming, relaxed environment in which to enjoy a tasting. Tours are available at 11:00 and 14:00 costing £10 per person, and as a maximum of ten people are accommodated per tour, advance bookings are essential. Visitors to the distillery can purchase a bottle from a hand selected cask which you are able to fill, cork, seal, and label yourself. Your name will then go into the ledger and you’ll have a unique gift to take home with you.
Now owned by Moët Hennesy, the Glenmorangie Distillery was founded in 1843 with production starting in 1849. Glenmorangie is famous the world over for its whisky with the first exports starting as long ago as 1880. Moving with modern times, the Distillery installed an anaerobic digestion plant in 2017 to process and break down by products such as pot-ale and lees which in turn means the production process is more sustainable. This has removed the need for them to be taken away from the Distillery by tanker for processing elsewhere. Tours and tastings are possible with the Original Tour costing £7.50 per person. It is possible to visit the tasting room without doing a tour. A range of Glenmorangie Single Malt Whiskies are available to purchase and try in the relaxed environment of the tasting room.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(22)
It very expensive for simply a drive to three distilleries. On top of the cost we had to pay an additional 15-50 GPB per person, per distillery. The driver was difficult to understand and did not add much information to the tour, history of Scotland nor the area.
It is quite expensive to do the tour and then only to have to pay for a distillery tour on top of it. Information needs to be updated with more detail as pricing was incorrect. Overall tour was good and enjoyable Our tour guide Johnnie was friendly and obliging.
This tour was great. It was just us so it made it a little more perfect as we could customize it how we wanted it. Our tour guide Johnny was a great wealth of knowledge and did all he could do to find me a highland cow for a quick picture!!!
Johnny was an excellent driver and tour guide. He knows the area well and will stop whenever something catches your eye. Just make sure you email ahead to know what distillery your are touring then call and make a reservation at that distillery for the time he indicates. We loved spending the day with him! Highly recommended!
Johnny was a great driver and full of stories about the local area. We went to Balblair, Glenmorangie and Glen Ord which were great to experience very different distilleries.
The tour is basically a taxi. There's no "guide". The tour operator does not book even the distillery tour slot. Of course, you have to pay for the tour and tasting yourself - it isn't part of the fee, but I feel that the expectation that guests should call the distillery from their home countries and book their own slots is ridiculous. I mean, I might as well have picked up a taxi in Inverness and told them where to take me. Also, since our "tour" exceeded 4.5 hours (which is bound to happen since the travel time itself is more than 2 hours, and a single distillery tour takes over an hour, plus half an hour each for the tastings at the distilleries, and another 20 mins for a quick lunch stop), we were asked to pay 50 pounds more for each additional hour. Johnny was kind enough to say that he'll try to work something out with the folks through whom we had booked the tour, so we haven't paid the excess yet, but I feel that this tour isn't very well thought out and planned. Note that both Trip Advisor and Viator (through whom we booked this) states 5 hours as the tour time, but the tour operator insists that it's a 4.5 hour tour.
Johnny is a jovial chap who is eager to share his love of northern Scotland as he drives you to visit three distilleries. Got to see some beautiful countryside. You will tour/taste at one of them, but only do tastings at the other two. These are all pay as you go. We toured and tasted at Balblair. We have visited other distilleries and after a while they are all just variations on a theme. So this tour was largely ideal. The Balblair tour was led by Simon who shared the very interesting history of the land and farm that one of the oldest distilleries in Scotland sits on. I am familiar with the other two distilleries: Glenn morangie and singleton. The singleton tasting room was very nice and bar tenders knowledgeable. The glen morangie tasting room was small with selections I was not familiar with and a pourer who was less than helpful.
Driver was good, and we booked quite last minute, but it was just a driver for four hours. I had to pay for an extra 90 mins and book the tours myself (which wasn't very clear in the booking). But having booked balblair and Glenmorangie, we had a good day.
Johnny our driver/guide was an awesome guide! Balblair Distillery was educational and the scotch excellent! We had an excellent time!
Best tour ever! We had such a wonderful trip! I would highly recommend this company. Our guide was friendly, informative and very accommodating.
