Balvenie Castle


Balvenie Castle June 17, 2000

From Craigellachie we drove to the heart of the Malt Whiskey Trail, Dufftown.

The Tourist Information Center is hard to miss being it's in the middle of town in a huge clock tower. Our experience here, proved the value of the TICs.

We wanted to book a room near Aberdeen on a Saturday night in order to go to the Highland Games. We were not the only people in Scotland who had this plan. Thus, the young woman spent 90 minutes calling around for us and eventually found a nice little B&B on a farm. This was well worth the 3 GBP that we were charged.

Dufftown Clock Town and Tourist Information Centre

Near Dufftown are the ruins of Balvenie Castle. Balvenie was the home to the "Black" (junior line of a family) Comyn Earls of Buchan who ruled Glen Fiddich from the 13th Century until they were wiped out by Robert the Bruce.

The castle then owned by the "Black" Douglases until they were wiped out by the Stuarts. Clearly, being the "Black" part of the family and owning this castle was not a good career move. The Stewart Earls of Atholl controlled the castle until it was abandoned in 1720. The castle's name lives on, however, in the Balvenie malt whisky.

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