Your Guide to the Speyside Malt Whisky Trail

The Speyside Malt Whisky Trail gives you valuable insight into a famous Scottish pastime – drinking whisky.

You can visit seven world-class distilleries, in the part of Scotland known as “Whisky Country”. This tour only covers 74 miles, so you won’t spend too much time driving. But you’ll need about three days to see everything along the way.

If you fancy visiting Scotland in your motorhome, and have a taste for the best whisky in the world, then this could be the perfect activity for you.

Here’s a brief itinerary of how you could tackle this tour…

(Quick tip – get a map, or some sort of sat nav. We don’t want to be responsible for you getting lost based on these rather vague instructions.)

Day 1

You begin your journey in the beautiful county of Banffshire, at the Glenlivet Distillery. Here you can take advantage of a free guided tour, which ends with a complimentary dram of The Glenlivet 12.

From there, you travel north alongside the River Spey for about 13 miles, until you come to Knockandu. Here you’ll find the Cardhu Distillery.

This is the only malt whisky distillery that was pioneered by women, and you have a choice between one of two tours. At the end, you’ll be offered a free whisky glass.

The final stop on day one is in Dufftown, about nine miles east of Knockandu. Here, you are welcome to explore the fascinating Speyside Cooperage – where you can see whisky barrels being created (and even have a go yourself).

Day 2

The second day continues where you left off on day one, in Dufftown. The Glenfiddich Distillery has been in operation since Christmas Day 1887, and has a fascinating history. You will need to book a place on the tour, which can take half a day.

After that, head north-west to Rothes for the Glen Grant Distillery. Aside from the guided whisky tour itself (which includes a tasting session), it has a wonderful Victorian garden you can have a look around.

The third and final stop of the day is around 20 minutes east, in a place called Keith. Here you will learn all about the art of blending at the Strathisla Distillery, the oldest such distillery in the world still in operation.

Day 3

Your final day begins to the north-west in Elgin, where you’ll be able to choose from one of two tours at the Glen Moray Distillery. The Fifth Chapter Tour is led by the Distillery Manager, and has a truly brilliant atmosphere that you won’t want to miss.

Then, around 20 minutes to the west you will find Forres, and the famous Benromach Distillery. This place is, officially, home of the world’s first organic single malt whisky. We’d highly recommend joining the Exclusive Manager’s Tour for incredible insight.

Finally, you will round of this amazing trip ten minutes down the road at the Dallas Dhu Historic Distillery. It actually closed in 1983, but has enormous historical significance, and you’re free to have a look around.

After that, you’re done! If you’re fond of whisky, and want to spend a long weekend driving around the amazing countryside of northern Scotland, then there is nothing better than the Speyside Malt Whisky Tour.

Is this something you’ve done yourself, whilst driving around in your campervan? We’d love to hear about your experience!

Final note – as you would expect, there is a lot of whisky-tasting on this tour, and so you won’t be able to drive. We’d recommend going with at least two people, parking up somewhere nearby and enjoying the landscape after visiting the distilleries.