Scottish Castles Experience Day 4 – Ruthven Barracks, Dalwhinnie Distillery, Pitlochary, Loch Leven Castle, and Back to Edinburgh

In the area of Badenoch, Scotland, sits the remains of Ruthven Barracks. The British Government forces built Ruthven on a former castle mount in 1721 after the Jacobite rising of 1715. The barracks could accommodate 120 troops and 18 horses. The walls had loopholes for musket firing and bastion towers built at opposite corners.

In 1746 prior to the Battle of Culloden, the commander of Ruthven surrendered to a fairly sizeable force of Jacobites after a short siege and battle. The day after Culloden, roughly 3,000 Jacobites retreated to Ruthven but were sent home by Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) as their cause was determined to be hopeless. As they departed, the Jacobites blew up the barracks so the government forces wouldn’t be able to use it.

It had a fairly steep gravel path leading up to it, but was very interesting to explore. Most of the other military barracks I have seen in the UK have still been in use, so it wasn’t possible to go inside. Of course this one was missing floors and roofs, but many of the stone walls were in pretty decent shape to get an idea of what it might have been like when it was used as a military base.

Our next stop was the Dalwhinnie Distillery, which produces single malt Scotch whisky. The distillery straddles the regions of the Highlands and Speyside in the Cairngorm Mountains. They refer to themselves as a Highland Scotch. The location was chosen because of the availability of clear spring water and the abundance of peat.

Peat is a brown deposit that looks like dirt bricks which is created through decomposition of vegetable matter in places like bogs and fens. It is often used for fuel. Some of the whisky distilleries in Scotland use peat fires to dry out their malted barley. This gives the Scotch a distinct smoky flavor.

The name Dalwhinnie comes from the Scottish Gaelic Dail Chuinnidh, which means “meeting place”. It was a meeting point of cattle drover’s routes through the mountains.

Immediately upon arrival at the distillery, I headed for the restroom. That was where I was when the fire alarm sounded. As I left the room, I found myself alone in the tasting and shop area as the alarm continued to sound. There was a woman outside of the front door who was quite startled to see me. I explained where I had been and asked where my tour group might be so I could join them. With a chuckle, she pointed me to the Rabbies group just as George was heading towards us.

He was very glad to see me, but was missing one more. This was the woman I mentioned back in my first post about this particular tour — the one who was constantly asking questions, didn’t seem to be terribly bright, and never listened to what anybody else said. The woman at the door sent one of the men outside with us back inside to call out the missing woman’s name. In the meantime, I headed for the rest of our group while the fire department arrived.

It turned out that it was a false alarm. We were able to enter the building once the fire department vacated it. Our missing colleague had been completely oblivious as to what had been going on. She said she heard the alarm but didn’t know what it was for. I thought it was a very good thing that it turned out to be a false alarm as she could have ended up being in real trouble since she never caught on that she needed to get out of the building.

Photos weren’t allowed inside, so nothing to share of the tour other than that they walked us through the entire process they use to create their Scotch. After the tour, we were able to taste, not only the varieties of Dalwhinnie Single Malt Scotch, but also several of the single malt Scotch whiskies produced by Diageo (the company that owns Dalwhinnie and several other distilleries). This was helpful to discover the preferred level of “peatiness”.

I found that I liked more smokiness than the Scotch I was drinking at that time, but not nearly as much as the Scotches one of my brothers prefers. Dalwhinnie actually was in the “sweet spot” as far as I was concerned, especially when accompanied by some of the luxurious Scottish chocolate truffles they also had on hand.

Michelle, Searan, and I had lunch together again in Pitlochry, which was a mostly Victorian town that sprang up as a tourist resort back when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited and bought Balmoral Castle not too far away. We ended up at an Italian Restaurant as we wanted a leisurely lunch outside and they had tables in a courtyard at in the back of the restaurant.

After lunch, we went to a nearby crafts shop. I found a table runner with thistles embroidered on it that I bought.

Down on the other end of the block, we visited a sweet shop called Scotch Corner. They had loads of fudge and other sweets in addition to ice cream and cotton candy. We each bought a variety of fudge and other Scottish sweets. Then we decided to have a little dessert for the road and bought ice cream cones.

Our last castle on the tour was Loch Leven Castle. This was a 13^th century castle that is best well known for being a prison for Mary Queen of Scots from June 17, 1567 until her escape on May 2, 1568. The castle originally took up most of the island, but when the river that feeds the loch was canalized in the 19^th century, the water level lowered.

There still is a tower house (keep) at one corner and the remains of a round tower called the Glassin Tower at the diagonally opposite corner with most of the inner wall somewhat intact. But only outlines of some of the other buildings remain and the outer walls are gone completely.

The only way to get to the island was on a 12-person ferry from the visitor center in Kinross. It travels back and forth at specific times. We were a tad early for the next crossing, so we visited the gift shop while waiting.

I saw a woman looking at a rubber duck that was dressed as Mary Queen of Scots. She apparently decided not to buy it and set it down. It was the only one, so I quickly picked it up and bought it. Later, she went back to try to find it, but it was too late. The rubber ducky was safely inside my camera bag.

During the time when Mary was a prisoner there, she was mainly held in the round Glassin Tower. The Towerhouse was used to accommodate her jailer, Sir William Douglas of Lochleven, and the staff to look after the Scottish Queen.

Not long after her arrival, Mary miscarried twins that she had conceived with her second husband, the Earl of Bothwell. They were quickly buried somewhere on the grounds of the castle. Just a few days later she was forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son James who was being looked after at Stirling Castle.

She made several attempts to escape which failed until her jailer’s family (the men seeming to have fallen in love with her) helped her to a boat and some awaiting horsemen. She fled to another castle from which she contacted her cousin, Elizabeth I of England, and asked for her help.

Loch Leven Castle is one of many castles throughout Scotland where the ghost of Mary is supposed to roam. It is said that she looks for her lost twins.

The Highlands of Scotland has insects known as midges that swarm in large numbers, biting and getting into eyes, mouths ears and noses. In all of the trips I have made to Scotland, I had never experienced the swarms in such enormous numbers before. But on that little island where the remains of Loch Leven Castle stand, I had the full Highland Midge experience. I don’t recommend it. It was much worse than the mosquitos in Minnesota, which we jokingly call our state bird.

That evening, we were dropped off at the Edinburgh bus station. From there, I took a taxi to the hotel where I would be staying for two nights.

The Scotsman Hotel was originally the offices of The Scotsman newspaper. They were housed in the Scottish baronial style building from 1904 until 2001. That was when they moved to new offices and the building was renovated into a hotel. It was just the other side of the North Bridge from the Balmoral Hotel on the Old Town side.

It seemed like it would be such a cool place to stay, but I ended up being creeped out. I found out after my stay that my room was on the same floor and only a short distance away from a room where a couple had committed suicide a few years earlier. Despite not knowing about this, I found it to be really spooky when I turned out the lights, so I left them on all night both nights.

Next time – a day trip from Edinburgh to Anstruther, St Andrews, with a stop at Falkland Palace.

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