Scotland whiskey tour itinerary | Visiting Annandale
So I just got back from the lowlands. What a weekend that was! This quick-fire article is going to detail my Scotland whiskey tour itinerary and how you can enjoy your own trip to its fullest. It’ll also include a mini-breakdown of my new favourite place - Annandale Distillery. I think you’re gonna enjoy this one.
What to expect on a whiskey tour
This is a question I’ve had a lot since I posted about my whiskey tour on Instagram. In a nutshell, you can expect to be given an in-depth insight into the whiskey making process, the history of the particular distillery you’re visiting and then lots of lovely samples of the goods.
We got tasters of peated, non-peated, single malts, blends and even some newer whiskies that hadn’t been brought to market yet. The whiskies get progressively tastier too…I wonder why? 🥴
Best whiskey distillery in Scotland
Obviously this one is completely subjective, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Annandale Distillery as one to put on your whiskey distillery bucket list. A tour of the whole distillery complete with about 5 or 6 samples is only £15! Bloody insane value. It only goes on for an hour though, so if you want to make a day/weekend of things, be sure to book some other stuff in.
Make a weekend of it
When I went, we stayed in Carlisle which is nearby, allowing us to enjoy a bit more of the surrounding area without having to get blacked out on whiskey. If you find a cool place on AirBnB you’re sorted. I got one with a fully kitted out gym too to stay on top of my game.
Specifically, we stayed right at the end of Hadrian’s Wall which is absolutely fascinating and meant there was tonnes of people coming through who had just walked the whole thing (which is 84 miles btw). These people usually have some cracking stories too.
I ended up talking with a couple of old blokes from South Carolina who had come over to walk the wall and drink our pints. Apparently UK booze is infinitely better than America’s.
Good idea for me to invest in British whiskey then, eh? Shoutout to VCL Vintners for that.
Travelling in style
If you’re gonna be visiting the Scottish countryside (where most distilleries are) then you’re probably not going by public transport. If you’re like me and live in the city centre where cars just aren’t needed, you have an opportunity.
All that dead money and stress avoided by walking everywhere, means that when the opportunity arises for a trip like this, I can go all out and get an absolutely baller car with absolutely no hassle.
Take it for the weekend, have the insurance, maintenance, loan repayments and everything else handled by the company and when Sunday comes, give it back with no stress whilst having all the upside of a £120k super SUV!
I chose to go with Prestige Car Hire for this filthy little Range Rover SVR. All black, from the exterior, through to the interior, my clothing and even my bottle of coke lmao.
This thing was absolutely ludicrous.
If you have the spare money and want to make your whiskey distillery trip a real weekend to remember, I can’t recommend this enough.
Whiskey tour itinerary
So here is your TL;DR whiskey tour itinerary list:
Rent a sick car to travel in (100x’s the experience, trust me).
Book your distillery tour tickets in advance.
Have some skin in the game. It makes the experience more immersive knowing you have your own cask at that very distillery.
Set a couple of hours aside and then plan a weekend around it. There’s nothing worse than coming to the end of the tour and not having anything else to do!
Have a designated driver for after the tour…unless you want to sleep in the car park.
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