Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre
No Scotch lover's trip to Edinburgh would be complete without a stop at the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre.
The Centre, located next to Edinburgh castle, was created in July 1987 (and opened its doors in May 1988), when 19 individual Scotch Whisky companies jointly invested £2m to create a permanent exhibition featuring the history and development of Scotch Whisky. The Centre consistently ranks among the most popular tourist attractions in Edinburgh.
It is the mission of the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre to promote the enjoyment of Scotch Whisky by providing a world-class, visitor attraction which will give visitors from all over the world an excellent appreciation of Scotch Whisky in an entertaining and informative way.
The Centre offers a number of activities and options including:
- The Whisky Tour covers all the various aspects of Scotch Whisky and tells its 300-year history. Not so good with the English? Not a problem - Scotch is loved around the world, so the tour is available in ten languages on a head-set system - English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Mandarin. Brochures are also printed in these languages. Admission prices here. Before you visit, make sure you go to the web site and download your coupon for a free dram!
- Scotch Whisky Appreciation Society. Take it a step further - join the SWAS and receive a taste of four different malts with tasting notes and discounts in the shop.
- The Amber Restaurant Whisky Bar offers over 300 different whiskies and whisky liqueurs
- The Amber Restaurant won the “gold award” from the Edinburgh Restaurateurs Association.
- The Gift & Whisky Shop - while the Centre does not produce whisky, their Gift & Whisky Shop stocks over 270 different whiskies - including some pretty rare ones - they claim to have the most extensive range of original distillery bottlings in Edinburgh (no independent bottlings here).
The Centre also introduced the Scotch Whisky Training School (SWTS), a full-day "certificate of expertise" program designed to help ensure that "those involved in the sale and service of Scotch Whisky, have access to good training and best practice." Susan tells me:
The Training School has been accepted well by all Restaurant, Bars and Hotels who have participated over the last 5 years. We now run the School all over Scotland - and have run courses at Tomatin Distillery, Bowmore Distillery, Glen Ord Distillery, Talisker Distillery, Glenfiddich Distillery and a number of hotels.
Apparently, they really know how to treat their 235,000+ yearly visitors, and have earned a 5 star rating from the Scottish Tourist Board. Not too shabby.
You may have also read about the hub-bub regarding the Centre's desire to modernize their entrance by replacing the current stone archway with a modern
glass "cylinder" entrance. The plan also includes improved access for the disabled, as well as new signs for the Centre.
The
proposals were attacked by the Cockburn Association, the Architectural
Heritage Society of Scotland and the Old Town Association, who feel that the
new entrance would not fit in with the area.
This time, however, members of the council's planning department studied the application and believed it would be a positive contribution to the area. On February 7th, the council's planning committee granted permission for the work to start.
Make sure the Heritage Centre is on your agenda next time you are in or near Edinburgh.
This Scotch Whisky Training School has got me excited, especially if it's only a one day course. I suspect I may not learn much, since I've read everything I can about scotch, but still, it'd be an interesting experience. I'm gonna have to blog about this.
One of these days I'm going to get to Scotland and explore my Cairns roots, in addition to touring every distillery I can.
Posted by: Jody | February 17, 2006 at 06:45 AM