Aberdeen, Scotland - Scotland is the proverbial land of misers yet visitors to the Eastern Highlands receive anything but short thrift. There is no shortage of things to see and do in this region and tourists can expect the typical Scottish ingredients of whisky, wool, sheep and haunted castles - along with locals for whom all these things are a part of everyday life.
Fyvie Castle is a classic Scottish baronial fortress which lives up to all the cliches. The entrance hall is majestically tall and there are suits of armour as far as the eye can see. The walls are adorned with crossed swords, stag antlers and the stuffed head of a moose.
This may be more or less what a visitor to a castle in Scotland has come to expect yet the stuffed polar bear, which seems to be about to pounce on a seal in the castle at Turiff, north-west of Aberdeen, is a more unusual variant.
There is altogether more here than meets the eye since the edifice with its more than 100 chambers is famous for something more ephemeral - the nocturnal ramblings of the ghost of the green lady.
Tour guide Andrew Collins ushers guests through a hallway and up a turnpike staircase so broad "that some visitors used to ride up it on horseback." Flemish tapestries decorate the walls along with collections of Chinese porcelain and a remarkable chandelier "which consists of hundreds of individual components- it takes three days to clean in winter," says Collins with a roll of the eyes.
A buffalo head hangs from the wall of the study together with a collection of weapons. The billiard table weighs two tons. "This where the gentlemen indulge in their vices," explains the guide. "Smoking, drinking and playing games."
Another attraction at Fyvie Castle is the bedroom where the master of this strongholdimprisoned his wife for many years. Her "crime" was having borne him four daughters but not a single son. "She still wanders around wearing the green dress she had on at the time, hence the name."
The owner of this castle goes under the name of Robert Lavie and he administers the fortified home on behalf of the National Trust, a national body which ensures that historical buildings remain accessible to the general public.
"I have never actually seen the green lady but I once caught a whiff of rosewater from her perfume," recalls Lavie. "She was in my apartment a few times as well, moved things around and even turned on the water tap."
Just to the west of Turriff lies the Highland town of Elgin, home to upmarket textile-manufacturer Johnstons. Guide Craig Ware shows guests the downy, white underfleece of the cashmere goat which is imported from Mongolia. The fibres are blended with wool from New Zealand. "This is camel hair," he says and passes a piece around for all to feel. "Wonderfully soft," remarks Ware.
Johnstons is happy to allow visitors to take a peek behind the scenes. Guests tour the spinning department, the hall where the weaving machines stand and even inspect the jumbo-sized washing machines where soft highland water is used to remove the final impurities. These days Elgin is almost as well known for Johnsons, which produces garments for famous fashion houses such as Lacoste, Ralph Lauren and Burberry, as for an imposing cathedral.
Speyside, a region famed for numerous whisky distilleries, lies to the south of Elgin and a little farther on in Pitlochry in Perthshire is Edradour, Scotland's smallest whisky maker. "We are the last original farm distillery in Scotland," Andrew Symington tells visitors. "It grew out of a farmstead where the leftover barley was used to make whisky." The distillery has held a licence to make the dram in the glass since 1847.
"Today I work with a brewery manager and two assistants," said Symington. "At other distilleries everything is controlled by computers but here we do the whole lot by hand." A tour of the works is fascinating and visitors get to see the "big bags" of barley as well as the large circular mash tubs and the bulbous vaporization stills.
Symington points to a wooden cask containing a cloudy liquid. "It has an alcohol content of eight per cent and will go into the still tomorrow," he adds. The whisky man deftly fills a bottle and invites visitors to try a drop - it tastes of warm wheat beer. The distillery process transforms the fluid into a colourless 70-per-cent spirit.
In its raw state this liquid is unlikely to delight any palate which is why Symington allows his single malt plenty of time to mature. "We use sherry, port, Burgundy, Madeira and Masala casks," he explains.
The taste and smoothness of a whisky depends on how long it is allowed to mature and on what was kept in the cask beforehand. In the visitor centre at Ebradour there are impressive racks of bottles, offering a whole spectrum of tastes and aromas to the whisky connoisseur.
