The first things come to people’s minds about Scotland are probably “Nessie”, whisky, kilts and castles, which of course have their own ghosts. I did a little investigation and found that there are approximately 1200 castles in Scotland, however, a few of them do not look like castles. Anyway, if you visit Scotland, visiting a castle is a must.

So did we and visited 3 castles on our Scotland trip which I am going to present in this post. I will try to be brief (it is difficult) and let the photos do the speaking.

Scottish Style

As an introduction though, let me explain the styles of Scottish castles quickly. There are some which look more like a medieval fortress and then we have some which have Renaissance, or Gothic style. However, the most popular style is the Scots Baronial, merging the styles of a medieval fortress with the French Renaissance chateaux style. The result is a Disney like castle, which can be understood better if we remind ourselves that this was the period of the Romanticism, when people turned away from the present and recalled the past and found comfort in that. The style became popular in the Victorian era from 1850 onwards. Characteristics are: pepper pot turrets, towers, crenelated battlements, porches, porticos, porte-cocheres.

Glamis Castle

Click on the photos below to see them in a slideshow.

The first castle on our trip was Glamis Castle, which I believe would take anybody’s breath away. The medieval building was extended and rebuilt in Renaissance and Gothic style. I loved this castle in spite of photographing not being allowed in the castle. There was a very interesting and well narrated 50 minutes tour. Let me share three things:

1.
Royal Family

The castle belonged to the Bowes-Lyon family, the Earls of Strathmore for centuries. In 1900, the Queen Mother was born here and grew up in the castle. Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, Princess Margaret who by the way was born here, spent much of their childhood in the castle. You can see their little wooden chairs next to the huge fireplace where the family would sit in the evenings.

2.
Ghosts

Glamis Castle is said to have 9 (!) ghosts having the title of the most haunted castle in Scotland. So there is a Grey Lady, who appears from time to time in the little chapel of the castle, therefore, locals who attend the mass today leave one chair for her. Who was the Grey Lady? Her name was Lady Janet of Douglas and her brother happened to be the step-father of King James V. The King hated his step-father and his family and when Lady Janet’s husband died and there was no one else left to protect the family, King James V allowed Lady Janet and her 16 year old son executed for witchcraft in Edinburgh. Then there is The Gambling Earl, the Earl of Crawford also known as Earl Bardie who had a passion for playing cards. One night when one of the servants reminded the Earl to stop as it was sabbath, the Earl said, he would not stop playing and would play until doomsday even with the Devil. Apparently, a stranger who was said to be the devil himself appeared at midnight and joined the Earl to play cards. Since people reported loud swearing and rattling of dice which annoyed the tenants of the castle so much that they bricked up the room. Then there is a black, African servant boy who was badly treated 200 years ago and who today is said to mischievously try to trip up passers by sitting on a stone seat next to the Queen’s bedroom. Others are a ghost of a woman with no tongue who is said to haunt the grounds, a Green Lady, the Hanged Butler, the ghost of King Malcolm II, Duncan and Macbeth and more importantly the Monster of Glamis. According to the legend, the family had a child who was severely deformed and locked up in a room in the tower. Others believe he died on the day he was born.

3.
Strathmore Blue

What I do like about the English (in this case let’s say British) is that they have a name for every colour or shade. You could read about the London Cabmen’s shelters on the blog’s Facebook page where I explained these shelters were painted Buckingham Paradise Green or in my post about the phone boxes you could find Battleship Grey and Brunswick Green, in another post a fabric and colour is called the Lavenham Blue. Well, the Strathmore family’s colour is called Strathmore Blue which was the Queen Mother’s favourite colour. Not to confuse it with the equally popular and similar shade of Duck Egg or Sea-spray Blue.

Balmoral Castle

When we hear the name Balmoral, many of us associate it with Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth II driving her Land Rover on the estate or walking her corgies wearing a headscarf. The estate was acquired by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1848, 5 years after their first visit to Scotland when they fell in love with the Scottish countryside. They bulit a new building on the estate (the castle today) and the old building was later demolished. Prince Albert influenced the design which was Scots Baronial.

Unlike the Glamis Castle, Balmoral did not have a wow factor for me. The castle itself is beautiful, but quite small. I think, what frustrated me was the fact that only the ballroom was open for the public, which is understandable considering the Queen still uses the castle from August until autumn. Yet I believe, the tour of the grounds could have been constructed in a more interactive way rather than just having an audio-tour where you have to hold a phone like thing to your ear all time. This made taking photographs difficult carrying round this extra equipment. I have seen the English doing a great job in visualising or making an excellent creative and interactive exhibition and it would be great if Balmoral could come up with something similar. Anyway, the estate has everything that you would find on an estate: vegetable garden, conservatory, flower garden, garden cottage, deer larder, park, riverside, pet cemetery. Without a doubt my frustration was compensated by the quirky details of the castle.

Balmoral is said to have one ghost, the ghost of Queen Victoria’s servant and friend, John Brown. He is said to walk down the corridors always wearing his kilt. Queen Elizabeth II said, she saw the ghost of John Brown at Balmoral and could feel his presence.

Dunrobin Castle

The Dunrobin Castle is beautiful and could easily fit into a fairytale with its pepper pot turrets. When I first saw it it reminded me of the Disney Castle and I bet, you do the same. The castle has belonged to the Earls of Sutherland for centuries. The Castle was re-built in Scots Baronial style after 1850. With its 189 rooms, the Dunrobin castle is the biggest castle in Northern Scotland – how they did not get lost in it, I have no idea…. The view from the rooms overlooking the North Sea is fascinating both in sunshine and I guess in a storm as well. I have visited many English castles and stately homes and what I found interesting walking through the rooms at Dunrobin is that they did not seem to be overly wealthy. I am sure the Earls of Sutherland were very wealthy, yet somehow it appeared in a very different way than you would normally find in England.

Dunrobin Castle too has its own ghost. The Earl of Sutherland locked up a young woman of a rival clan in the upper floor and he wanted to marry her. The woman wanted to escape through the window by tying sheets together but unfortunately, she fell off and died. Her crying is said to be heard coming from the seamstress room.

~

Scotland has some amazing castles which during our visit we were very lucky to visit in fantastic weather. Matching the beautiful Castles with the most amazing scenery touring around Scotland has ensured that we shall return. If a countries beauty and assets inspires you, Scotland is a must.

The quick answer is wood and the tradition of cooperage.

One would think, only the most expensive alcohol is stored in huge casks these days and everything else is stored in huge metal tanks, just like in breweries or in modern wineries. Fortunately, the “uisque beatha”, alias whisky, is still stored in oak casks.

When I studied logistics, one of my teachers said never to underestimate warehouse workers, because if they do not do the work properly, the rest of the Supply Chain won’t either. I had a similar impression about whisky: if no casks, no whisky. Casks are as important as the clear water, or the distillery itself. But who made casks?

The Coopers

This is all I knew about coopers or cooperage, nothing else. But there is so much more about this occupation to learn than I have ever thought. It was interesting to learn that not only wine and whisky was stored in casks in old days, but butter, milk and salted herrings, to name a few. No wonder that coopers were needed everywhere and were respected and well paid. Apart from casks, coopers also made tubs, baskets and buckets.

But let’s have a look at Speyside Cooperage, in Craigellachie, Speyside the heart of whisky production in Scotland, although whisky is produced in many regions of Scotland. We popped in during our Scotland trip, although we did not plan it, but it was well worth a visit. In this cooperage they repair 150,000 casks a year. Yes, repair because both the whisky and the wine industry prefers to use used casks, not only because they are cheaper but because they provide even better flavours to the wine and/or whisky.

By the way, whisky or whiskey? Which one is correct?

Both, however, “whiskey” is the spelling in America and Ireland and “whisky” in all other producing countries. Scottish malt whisky is always whisky.

The process

There are 14 coopers working in the cooperage and they are paid on piecework, which means they want to repair as many casks a day as they can. This number is between 25 and 30 normally. The process has not really changed since the old days: they mainly work by hands using tools, however some operations are done by machinery.

Casks are being delivered to the workshop from the pyramids on the yard where they can store up to 200,000 casks. Coopers pick them up one by one and they always have to take what is next to be fair with each other. The metal hoops are removed by a machine, then the coopers brush the casks and inspect them looking for damage and they mark the damaged staves with chalk. Then they repair the casks, replacing any damaged staves etc and the casks go for charring and steaming. This process softens the wood which makes it malleable for finishing, but also helps to get rid of any contamination or bugs and the pores of the wood open and which allows the whisky can pick up more flavour. Heads (lids) are produced in a separate workshop and are assembled using staves that are fixed together with a pin (dowel) and hole assembly, using straw between the staves for insulation. Then it is cut round with a beveled edge for providing a good seal. Interestingly, workers producing heads are not coopers, they could not make a barrel, but coopers know and learn how to make heads.

Coopers put a sticker on each casks they repaired and then they are moved to the Testing area for quality inspection. The inspector puts some water in the cask and fills it with compressed air. Should the cask not been properly repaired, the water and air would leek. If this happens, the cask goes back for another repair to the same cooper. I did ask our tour guide although I was almost 100 percent sure about the answer: Coopers do not like the quality inspector. 🙂

An extra surprise at the cooperage…

When our young Scottish tour guide explained something, I did not understand one word and I told him where I was from. His eyes lit up and said proudly that one of their coopers is from my home country, Hungary and called Attila. I could hardly believe that in the middle of Scotland where no one ever goes, there is a Hungarian cooper working in a cooperage. What is the chance of that? On a side note, I was really proud to be honest. I managed to talk to him for a few minutes and asked him the question that interested me the most:

Is there any difference the way this occupation is taught in Scotland and in Hungary?

Yes. In Scotland they have to learn it for 5 years and during this period they learn thoroughly how to repair casks. In Hungary the apprentice takes 3 years, but they are not allowed to use any machinery in the first year, only tools. They have to learn how to shave and polish staves and to build a cask from scratch. What I did forgot to ask whether in Hungary coopers passing their final test are too rolled around the workshop sitting in a barrel. Because this is what they do in Scotland! The long standing traditions of cooperage are held very closely and with huge pride between all coopers.

The wood

I also wanted to know what wood they use for casks. Even if they only repair casks those old casks must have been built at some stage, somewhere. The material mainly used is American oak which they cut as shown in the below photograph. They leave it to dry for a year but sometimes for 2 years. Staves must be tapered, beveled and groomed to hovel shape. Normally a cask is made of 29-33 staves.

What about marks?

Earlier it was a tradition to burn the cooper’s mark into the barrel but they don’t do this anymore as these barrels are circulating in the world and used by several companies. Upon request they are able to do that, but if a mark is required it is done by the destillery itself.

Do I like whisky?

No, not really. Bill who ran a whisky shop before explained there are different flavours of whisky which I was not aware of. So there are fruity, smokey, peaty and salty flavoured whiskies and all combinations in between, you just have to find the one you like. Well, you must be really determined to find the one you like and keep on tasting as many as seen on the photo below… Additionally once a whisky is bottled it no longer ages. The aging is done in the cask. Over the years the cask allows the whisky or wine to breath and the barrel will lose approximately 5% of its volume in the 1st year and 2% per year thereafter through evaporation through the wood. This is known as the “Angles Share”. As the aging takes place and the losses mount this gives rise to the increasing value of the contents of the cask.

~

I was thinking whether I steal the cooperage’s thunder by writing this article and sharing my wonderful experience but I realised whilst I was writing how much more information there is in the cooperage. Not only that, you can’t beat the short video with special effect that you can watch there and the watching the coopers working in the workshop. If you can, go and see because it is great to see such an old occupation in action. It is well worth it.
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