The Spey River in Scotland. Famous for its salmon and its whiskey. The water of this special region helps to give Speyside Whisky its own unique taste. Jez Ralph took a boat down the river to have a taste of the things that made this area famous.
Whisky is made is numerous distilleries all over Scotland. The word “whisky” is ironically an English mispronunciation of the Gaelic “uisge beatha”, which “the water of life” Each area has its own distinctive flavour. Single malts (that is whisky from a single distillery) are strongly regional in character. Blended malts, which are a blend of whiskies from more than one distillery lose this regional distinctiveness and are more middle of the road. Scottish whiskies divide into Highland and Lowland Malts, which are mild rounded whiskies with a honeyed after taste; Speyside whisky has a more intense flavour; and then there are the Islays, which can have a very strong peaty taste of pepper and iodine. Not to everyone’s liking and probably not ones to try if you’re new to whisky-drinking.
Historic route
The River Spey was in important trading route and historically, it was one of only an handful of rivers in the UK to be a public right of way. Navigable for up to 40 miles inland, it was used for transporting pine logs for masts for sailing ships, which were floated down the river. And, of course to as a means of shipping out the region’s most famous local produce: whisky and smoked salmon.
We were drawn to the romance of descending this ancient route and of visiting the distilleries that have made the river what it is today and its valley famous. We hired three Canadian canoes, brought our own tents and set out to make the journey from the upper reaches down to the tidal section.
The new Scottish Access legislation makes this kind of trip much easier than it would have been a few years ago. The Spey has numerous little islets where you can camp, and thankfully, this is no longer classes as trespassing. So you can relax, camp and try the local fare without worrying that some irate land-owner with a gun and a couple of dogs is going to tell you to get off his land (or island)
Scotched Salmon
We started our journey in the upper reaches of the Spey, opting to travel downstream to reduce the effort. The flow of the river is not particularly fast although over the three days of our journey, we encountered a couple of rapids. Along the river there are smoke houses, producing smoked meat and fish which are the other main speciality of the region. The Spey is one of Scotland’s most important salmon rivers and it has to be said that we did not always get a warm welcome from the fishermen that line the banks. People can pay up to £1000 a day to fish the Spey and do not like having the silence of the river disturbed by whisky tasting canoeists (particularly not dressed as we were in Indian outfits and cowboy hats). They claimed that we were disturbing the fish but we also suspected they were annoyed that we were so obviously having a good time at a fraction of what they were paying.
There are a dozen or so distilleries within a mile of the river. The most famous brands are Glenfiddich and Glenlivet but there are many more smaller and arguably more interesting distilleries to visit as well. Not all of them are open all the year round. We went to four or five, where you can have the full tour, although one kilted guide telling you about the process of whisky manufacture is pretty much like another. I’d suggest one guided tour to learn about distillation and then just stick at tastings for the rest of your visits.
Mind the midges
Because we were visiting only Speyside distilleries, all the whiskies we were tasting were, well… Speysides. I’m honestly not so much of a connoisseur that I can easily distinguish one Speyside form the next but the whiskies went down well and made a pleasant tipple as we paddled or rather floated to our next stop. We did the trip in early June. - A good time of year when the days are long and generally fine and the notorious “wee beasties”, the midges for which Scotland is also famous have not got up to full biting strength. We took three days over it, but if you chose to do the river trip in mid summer, when all the distilleries are open and chose to visit them all, the whole journey might take five or six days.