Day one at Whisky School

I travelled with my friend Doug to attend Whisky School in Campbeltown, Scotland at the Springbank distillery.  Not only is this trip about the about the destination, it is also about the journey.  Campbeltown is located on the west coast of Scotland, on the Kintyre peninsula.

There are two other classmates, one from Sweden and one from France, they share a mutual interest in sipping fine single malts too.

As part of our introduction to the distillery, we did our health and safety walk, toured the facility and learned where all the Fire Exits were, and where to NOT hit your head on low  overhangs! We were split into two groups.  Doug and I were dispatched to the malting floor where Kerry and Norman taught us to turn the malted barley with a machine that resembles a lawn mower.  After we prepped the six tonnes of barley, the next stage of our education was working in the warehouse.  We were surrounded by a sea of casks.  We drew samples from various casks, and filtered it into bottles that would be sold at the gift shop.   Our other duties on the day included transferring some casks around the warehouse.

As great as the experience of being at Springbank was, I must admit that my other goal for being here was to take a drive past High Park Farm, Paul McCartney’s farmhouse!  It was like a dream come true!