Scotland is one of the four countries that make up the region of the United Kingdom; the others three are Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east. Scotland covers about 30% of the land of the UK. The total area is 31510 sq miles. From the south to the north Scotland measures 275km and is 248km wide in it’s widest point. The official flag is called Saltire – St. Andrews flag – X -shaped cross on a blue field. Scotland consists of 787 islands including the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. Only 62 islands are larger than 3 sq miles. The population of Scotland is more than 5 million. The most people (about 4,5 million) live in cities and towns . The highest point of Scotland and also of the whole England is the summit of Ben Nevis, rising to 1344 meters above sea level. Scotland is divided into many regions as follows - Highland, Grampian, Tayside, Fife, Central, Strathclyde, Lothian, Dumfries&Galloway, Borders + Shetland Islands, Orkney, Hebrides. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh but the biggest city is Glasgow. Other large cities are: Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee. In regards to religion the national church (Church of Scotland) has the dominant position and isn’t very different from the Church of England. In the old days, Scotland used to be catholic (mainly people from highland areas) but gradually the reformed Scottish church muddled through. The last catholic queen – beloved and hated Marry the Queen of Scots (who was actually French) was executed in the 16th century. The official language in Scotland is English, even though 1% of the population (about 50 thousand people) speaks Gaelic (especially people from the northwest and contiguous islands). Also the Scots language which is very similar to the English language has a lot of affinities to French and Gaelic languages and is mostly used in slang. The home-folks use both English and Scots language, therefore Scots language may appear as a dialect of the English language, but exactly as neither Slovak language is a dialect of Czech, nor is Scots language the dialect of English. Even Scots has it’s own dialects – e.g. “Doric” is spoken near Aberdeen. The difference between English and Scots can be compared to the difference between the Slovak and Czech language. Gaelic was mostly the language of Highlands, Scots the language of Lowlands. Scotland is very well known as a mountainous country; there are the highest mountains of the whole United Kingdom in Scotland, beautiful nature, lochs, typical culture, traditions and national pride. In the world are more than 10 million people who avow to be Scottish, mostly in Canada, Australia and the USA. Basically everyone whose surname begins with typical “Mac” or “Mc” (which means “son” e.g. McGregor – The son of Gregory) has his origin in Scotland.

To the spring of the “Water of Life” - from the trip around Scotland

To be an expert of whisky means to know the art of its creation, to know the area where the stocks for the production of whisky are grown. And where does the spring water flow from, how to process and sell these row materials. And of course the art also is to be able to enjoy it. I am not a gourmand of whisky but I got to know some of these on my journey across Scotland, and I was also taking pictures.

Scotch Whisky (Gaelic “usquebaugh”) , meaning “Water of Life”, phonetically became “usky” and then “whisky” in English. The first reports of home distilling whisky are dated to 15th century and came from monks, who had wandered around home distillers and later perhaps tried to produce this “Water of Life” for their own purposes.

Scotland is well known for the Scotch whisky, and if visited, definitely can’t be left without tasting it. To follow the way of whisky means to get to know the truth about distilling barley, what kind of water is used in malting barley, what’s the use of peat which gives an earthy, peaty flavour to the spirit of Scotch. The method of production of whisky is well known and openly presented to the public.

Malting is the first step of production whisky. Mellow barley is malted—by steeping the barley in water for about 12 days - allowing it to get to the point of germination. Malting releases enzymes that break down starches in the grain and help convert them into sugars. When the desired state of germination is reached the malted barley is dried using smoke – stopping the germination. The smoke coming out of the peat gives to the semi product specific taste and flavor. In the next step is the dried malt ground into a coarse flour called “grist”. This is mixed with hot water in a large vessel. This process is referred to as “mashing” and the mixture as mash. In mashing, enzymes that were developed during the malting process are allowed to convert the barley starch into sugar, producing a sugary liquid known as "wort”. Fermentation begins after adding yeast. The resulting liquid, now at about 5–7% alcohol by volume, is called "wash" and is very similar to a rudimentary beer. The next step is to use a still to distill the wash. Distillation is used to increase the alcohol content and to remove undesired impurities such as methanol. At this stage it is called "new make" and after distillation, its alcohol content is about 57%. The last step is placing the new make spirit into oak casks for the maturation process. The ageing process results in evaporation so each year in the cask causes a loss of volume as well as a reduction in alcohol. The distillate must age for at least three years. The best brands of whisky aged between 10-15 years, but also 50 years aged whiskeys can be found. The whisky connoisseurs don’t differentiate the quality of whisky just by its age, but also by the purity of row materials used for it’s production. Malt whisky must contain no grain other than malted barley and is traditionally distilled in pot stills. Grain whisky may contain unmalted barley or other malted or unmalted grains such as wheat and maize (corn) and is typically distilled in a continuous column still.

Single malt whisky is a 100% malted barley whisky from one distillery. Pure malt is one of the less common types of Scotch: a blend of single malts from more than one distillery and with differing ages. Blended whisky is a mixture of many types of whiskeys from various distillers. Single malt whisky is the most common and looked for by the whisky professionals. A Single Malt Scotch Whisky is the product of one specific distillery and has not been mixed with whisky from any other distilleries. The greatest concentration of malt whisky distilleries can be found in the Seaside region of north-east Scotland, with Highland, Lowland and Islay being the other main malt whisky producing zones. Each of these regions has its own particular distinctive style of malt whisky and although it is not possible for two malts to be identical, even if the distilleries that produce them happen to stand side by side, it is usually possible to distinguish in which region of Scotland a particular whisky was made. It is drunk all by itself or with a bit of pure water. When you taste whisky, first you should tilt and turn the glass to let it coat the glass, this increases the surface area, permitting greater evaporation and thus enhancing the aroma, smell the aroma, then take a sip just enough to coat your mouth and begin to slowly swirl it around your tongue and swallow gently. Adding ice into whisky or any mixtures of whisky are found to be outraging of the original taste of this Scottish “Water of Life”.

If you however ordered a whisky at an original Scottish pub and tried to be a connoisseur of whisky you would only be considered to be a foreigner or someone from the other planet, as in an original Scottish pub is whisky simply drank, or drank with beer. You can also order a drink consisted of whisky with ginger wine to warm yourself up. Paying a visit to a distiller must be a part of each trip to Scotland. About 40 distillers has well sophisticated promotion. Therefore it is natural, that visitors of Scotland like visiting whisky distillers. For just 2-4 pounds you can get a lot of information about the process of producing whisky, will be able to see all these processes at your sight and will be let to taste the final product. And at the end, influenced by the tasted whisky, will be willing to invest to the whole bottle. We paid a visit to Bell’s Blair Athol Distillery, which offered an exclusive excursion along the production of the Bell’s Blair whisky. It’s name is derived from the Blair Atholl castle. It is situated to Pitlorchy, small village in Highlands. The smoke from alcohol distillers collects on the roofs of houses that are near these distillers. This is how you can recognize where whisky is being distilled. Also, as shown in the picture, the roof of the house is completely covered by this kind of dust. Single malt whisky is a rarity as regards our wallets. Just by the source you can be charged 28 even more pounds. But who wouldn’t taste the whisky if you’re just at the source of it. We also invested and drank a bit of this gorges product each evening of the rest of our trip. I don’t usually drink whisky, but in Scotland, I loved it.

To follow the story of whisky means to know the truth about the environment where does this “Water of Life” rises from. And therefore, the following pictures show the nature of Highlands, which gives the whisky the main staple – water, which flows from always green hills, that dews on the grass each morning, which sings in streams down the hills among the trees and fields.