After more than a week of nice golfing weather, jumper (sweater) weather, and nine golf rounds in the last twelve days (including three British Open Qualifying courses), the weather has turned to winter and I have a chance to get on line and send out this entry-- our usual evenings being spent writing up the day’s golf course and pub notes for the next book. Look for another entry in the next few days that will be our end of the trip summary and photo montage. For now a little history and a wee tipple.
An Historic Chapel
As fascinating as Melrose Abbey (previous entry) is, other spots are equally intriguing. For example, Sweetheart Abbey in the Dumfries and Galloway area has an interesting history being built (1275) to memorialize Lady Dervorgilla of Gallow’s husband John Boiliol.
When Lady Devrogilla died she and the embalmed heart of her husband were interred on the abbey grounds--thus, Sweetheart Abbey. The new National Trust Robert Burns’ Birthplace Museum in Alloway is filled with original Burns’ documents and memorabilia.
Even more fascinating is Rosslyn Chapel outside of Edinburgh, made even more famous by Dan Brown’s novel and then the movie The Da Vinci Code.
We have a special affinity for the chapel having played golf with the current trustee of Rosslyn Chapel, Baron St Clair Bond. The chapel, whose official name is the Collegiate Chapel of St Matthew, was built by William Sinclair, the First Earl of Caithness (the far north area of Scotland) in 1456. Supported by 14 large pillars, the chapel is most famous for its interior sculptures and carvings, which are some of the best and most intricate in Europe. After Brown’s 2003 book the crowds visiting the chapel got so large that the Rosslyn Chapel Trust banned interior photography--too many people taking pictures and getting in each other’s and everyone else’s way.
It’s a shame, but it makes my pre-2003 interior photos that much more special. The chapel boasts of more than a hundred Green Man carvings (sculptures combining a face with leaves or vines and symbolizing, among other things, rebirth) and carvings of Maize (corn), aloe, and trillium which were at the time the chapel was built (almost forty years before Columbus’s first voyage to the New World) supposedly unknown in Europe--lending credence to the stories of a Sinclair voyage to the New World in the 1300s. Now Masonic and Knights Templar connections fuel even greater interest in Rosslyn Chapel.
With all the interest in the chapel, the money from both trusts (such as Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland) and visitors has been put to good use. The chapel has a new state of the art Visitor’s Centre and has begun an extensive program of restoration and preservation of the exterior carvings.
Rosslyn Chapel is one of the premier visitor destinations in Scotland, even if no interior photography is allowed.
Collecting a Taste of Scotland
Haggis and black pudding may not be our favorite dishes, but another taste of Scotland is not only worth having while in Scotland, it’s also worth taking home and collecting. Uisge Beatha, The Water of Life, Scotch Whisky. I had always like Scotch whisky, although in college it was whisky and 7 Up or whisky and soda--always the blended stuff (Johnnie Walker, Vat 69, Teachers). It wasn’t until we started traveling to Scotland that I really discovered my taste for Single Malt Whisky. In 2000 we brought a couple of bottles home, then went to the local liquor store and bought more. Not that I’m a heavy drinker--a couple of fingers a night is my usual limit--but I do enjoy the collecting of various whiskies and having several bottles to choose from when I want a dram or offer a dram to guests.
One of our favorite places to buy whisky, The Corn Exchange in Crieff.
Visiting the distilleries is always an entertaining enterprise and so far we’ve visited 29 in Scotland. There have also been a few adventures in my whisky collecting experience, especially when trying to bring home whiskies I can’t get in my local store.
Once, early in our travels, I was almost caught by US Customs in violation of our quota which is four and half bottles of spirit. I was carrying five and listed “whisky” on our customs declaration without specifying the number of bottles. The agent saw that I had declared whisky and asked, “How much?” I lied, “Five bottles, but one is a half.” She said, “Okay. This time.” That was the last time we tried to bring more than four bottles back.
There was once when I tried to bring back an unusually shaped bottle, sort of like a crock-style large flask (if that makes any sense) of special Caol Ila (Islay whisky). It’s the only bottle we’ve ever had that leaked. We lost about a quarter of the contents, but thankfully it was sealed up well in bubble wrap and plastic bags (Anne does a great job of packing) and no whisky got on anything else in the suitcase. No, I didn’t lick the bubble wrap.
The biggest disaster we’ve had transporting booze has been the time we got stopped by TSA in Newark with a special bottle of rare Ardbeg (Islay) whisky. From Edinburgh my carry-on had been sent as baggage under strict British security rules, but when we got delayed in Newark overnight, the backpack became carry-on again. At five in the morning with only three hours of sleep the night before, my travel-addled brain didn’t register that I had whisky in the wrong place. The TSA agent was very nice about it and gave me several options: (a) give it to someone (we knew nobody in Newark); (b) go back through the check-in line and ship it as checked baggage (we didn’t have time before our flight); (c) drink it (at that time in the morning even I couldn’t face the best whisky); or (d) throw it in the bin with all the other I-forgot -to-throw-them-away liquids. I couldn’t do it, so I asked the agent if he would do the honors. He placed the bottle ever so gently in the bin. I do hope he recovered the whisky later and shared it around--it would be a shame to think it went to waste.
On this trip we are bringing home just three bottles: a Pittyvaich (closed distillery) 18 Year Old by Rare Malts, a 20 Year Old Braes of Glenlivit whisky, and a special bottle I just bought this afternoon (that’s why it’s not in the photo) of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky, a commemorative recreation of the whisky from the British Antarctica Expedition of 1907. The Nimrod Expedition (named for his ship) was the first of three Antarctica expeditions lead by Ernest Shackleton. The whisky was found almost a hundred years later buried under Shackleton’s McMurdo Sound cabin. After 18 months of analysis the whisky is reported to be an exact match for the Shackleton whisky and “sheer heaven” to drink. I hope so, but we’ll see.
A last note on whisky collecting. While staying at the Neidpath Inn in Peebles we saw two display cases of old rare miniatures. The owner didn’t name a value, but I’d estimate from the age and rarity of some of the wee bottles several thousands of pounds Sterling were mounted on the wall. Anne won’t let my collection approach anything near that. Damn!
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