Aberdeen Trip Day 2 (Royal Lochnagar)
Travel
Bus (return trip): Aberdeen Bus Station – Balmoral Car Park (2hr), Train: Aberdeen – Edinburgh (2hr 40min)
Itinerary
08:15 – 10:11: Bus (Stagecoach 201: Ballater): Aberdeen Bus Station – Balmoral Car Park
10:11 – 10:25: Walk: Visit Balmoral Castle
11:45 – 12:10: Walk: Balmoral Castle – Royal Lochnagar Distillery
12:30 – 13:30: Tour: The Founders Tour (Glen Garioch)
15:45 – 16:46: Bus (Stagecoach 201: Aberdeen): Balmoral Car Park – Aberdeen Bus Station
18:18 – 20:49: Train (ScotRail: Edinburgh): Aberdeen – Edinburgh
Note: I bought an Explorer ticket for the bus at £20.20, which allowed unlimited travel for the day in Aberdeen and the surrounding regions as far as Inverness. The price of a single ticket was around £15.60, and the return was £29.70, so this was the most cost-effective option.
Directions
I headed for Royal Lochnagar, located near the picturesque Cairngorms National Park, just south of Balmoral Castle. To get to the distillery, I hopped on the Stagecoach 201 to Braemar, which left from Stance 8 at Aberdeen Bus Station. This bus runs every hour, but as I wanted to arrive with plenty of time, I got the early 8:15 bus, which arrived in Balmoral at 10:15.
The bus was quite comfortable, although it has around 100 stops on the way, so it’s best to have a good book or Spotify playlist for the journey. My bus on the way to Balmoral was a double-decker and had USB charge points, which was great, but rather annoyingly it announced every stop as it was approaching, which, as there were some many stops, happened every 60 seconds or so! I stayed on the bus until Balmoral Road end, which is just outside the car park for Balmoral Castle. On arrival, I just walked through the car park and headed towards the entrance of Balmoral Castle. As you approach the entrance of Balmoral Castle, there is a small sign which points towards the Distillery on the left and the distillery is around a mile away. Although I chose to visit Balmoral Castle first, which is to the right and only about a 10-minute walk, through the visitors centre which is facing you on arrival.
On the way to the distillery, there is no paved footpath, although there is a small dirt path on the right, which is fine for walking for part of the way although it slowly gets more narrow before disappearing entirely before the road turns off for the distillery. I followed the road which runs alongside a golf course until I came to the Royal Lochnagar sign on the right. The road was surprisingly busy with cars and people, but it was luckily a nice day and relatively flat. At the distillery sign, I turned off the main road and then walked up a fairly steep uphill section to the distillery entrance. I have to say it is a bit of a climb, so on a warm day, you will be sweating by the time you reach the entrance of the distillery. Again, there is no footpath for this section, so you will be walking on the road, but it is not a busy road as the only traffic will be distillery traffic. The walk took me around 18 minutes, but you probably want to give yourself 25-30 minutes. This is worth keeping in mind, depending on what bus/tour you do, there was one tour at 11:30, which I considered with a bus that arrives at 11:10, but I am glad I never did this option as it would have been a tight connection
Distillery Facilities
There is a large shop which you enter on arrival at the visitors centre, as this is a Diageo-owned distillery, you can buy a range of whisky from other Diageo-owned distilleries within the shop in addition to the fairly limited Royal Lochnagar options. Royal Lochnager only has three purchase options of the 12-year-old, distillery exclusive, and fill your own, and the latter two are quite pricy! If you walk through the shop, you come to a decent-sized café/bar area, which has seating inside and outside and a good range of single drams or flights to choose from. It is table service, which I didn’t know, so don’t make the same mistake as me and just grab a seat if you have time for a drink or some food. I had an hour after my tour, so as it was a sunny day sat outside on one of the benches and enjoyed a Cardhu gold in the sun, which was an ideal end to the tour.
Distillery (Expressions Tour)
The distillery is the third distillery built here as the other two burned down, and it was built before Prince Phillip and Queen Victoria bought Balmoral Castle and estate. After the Royals moved into Balmoral, they were invited to visit and try the whisky and apparentley enjoyed it so much that the distillery was made a royal supplier and had its name changed from New Lochnagar to Royal Lochnagar.
The distillery is now part of the Diageo group of distilleries, but it is the smallest member of the group, only producing 28 casks of whisky each week. The production here is very traditional, and the buildings and tools have an old feel to them, one of the interesting parts of the production was the large open mash tun, which is used on site. This is the first time I have seen an open-air mash tun, as usually, due to the need for energy efficiency, these have a lid on them. It was unfortunate that I visited during a non-production day, as it would have been even more interesting to see it in full flow. There are only two washbacks on site, and they both looked quite old, in keeping with the rest of the distillery! The traditional methods also mean that everything at Royal Lochnagar is done by hand, and as you wander around, there is a distinct lack of gadgets or technology on site!
There is a lack of whisky storage space on site, so the distillery stores the whisky off-site, but there is one small warehouse at Royal Lochnagar, which houses some barrels of Royal Lochnagar and barrels from other Diego properties such as Caol Isla, Lagavulin, and Cardhu. Apparently, this site is used as a training ground for new distillers to test their skills by nosing a range of different whiskies, both heavily peated and unpeated.
Tasting
The final stop is the tasting area, which is just at the back of the shop, on my tour I was able to sample four different whiskies as I went for the slightly more premium Expressions Tour. The drams included a 12-year-old Royal Lochnagar, Distillery Exclusive, cask sample bottle from 2000 and the fill your own cask, which on this occasion was a 14-year-old. I think all of the drams were very drinkable, although I was a little disappointed in the cask sample, which is only available on the tour and not available to buy just yet. Although it was the oldest whisky I sampled, I felt it had a bit of a dry finish, and it lacked any wow factor, as I would assume this would be the most expensive dram I tasted. The best one for me was probably the fill your own 14-year-old old which was smooth, very fruity and had a warm finish. It was a shame that it was a bit too pricy at £145 a bottle (even though you do get a discount of 10% for being on the tour).
Summary: Tour Price: £40, Duration: 60 mins*, Samples: 4
*Although the tour takes 60 minutes, that is the point at which you reach the tasting, so as it does take a little longer to finish the samples if you are taking your time, so factor that into your itinerary if you do this tour.
Conclusion
I actually really liked Royal Lochnagar, although it’s part of the Diageo group, it does not feel like a corporate experience, there is a lot of history here, and it offers a fantastic look at some traditional whisky-making processes. I also took some time to visit Balmoral Castle, which did kill some time, but for over £18, I did not think it was worth the money, as you only get inside one room! If it’s raining when you visit, then it probably is not a good option as everything is outside at the castle, probably better to head straight to the distillery.
