Susan,

First thing to learn is, in Scotland, it's whisky.

No, there's whiskey in Scotland, but none of it is domestic.

Canadians and Scots make whisky; Americans, Irish, Japanese, etc. all make whiskey.

That said, S_S you need to give more info: how much time in the area, what castles are you interested in, what thoughts as to time on the Whisky Trail v. Castle visiting. May be better with two resting spots, one near Dufftown for the booze, one nearer to Aberdeen for the castles.

See here for (Speyside) distillery info: http://www.scotlandwhisky.com/distilleries/speyside/

See here for the Castle Trail: http://www.aberdeen-grampian.com/pdf/Castle-Trail.pdf Skip Corgarff (#2 on the list) - it's not worth the visit no matter how many stars they give it. Fraser, Drum and Craigevar were.

If you base someplace along the Dee -- maybe Ballater -- you would be w/i striking for both the whisky & castle trails.

oops - didn't mean to hit Submit. Of course there are distilleries and castles in just about every corner of Scotland - but for the 'Trails', Deeside would be good.

Thanks so much! We are spending three days in Edinburgh then renting a car to see the Highlands for five days. Would like to ride horses around Loch Ness, see Culloden and then on to the Castle/Whiskey Trail. Thinking of basing ourselves in Dufftown. We might fly home from Aberdeen.

"then on to the Castle/Whiskey Trail"

OK -- maybe you thought the others were kidding. It isn't the 'Whiskey Trail', it is Whisky. Whiskey and Whisky are two different animals.

Craigellachie or Aberdour. Not that there's anything wrong with Dufftown but they are better.

Having said that, they do not overlap (albeit there are distilleries on the castle trail and castles on the Whisky trail), so being at the southern end of one or the northern end of the other would be good. You might want to think of limiting yourselves to two, say, of each

Have you read Ian Banks's book on Whisky? Worth a read before you come over.

We decided to stay in Forres. Now, we are looking for some place interesting to stay near Aberdeen as we are flying home from there. Any thoughts?

I once stayed at an interesting B&B in Aberdeen. It was January, 1981. Had arrived at Prestwick airport early that morning, but the Sunday schedules were such as mess that we had to take buses from Glasgow central all day to Aberdeen and then change there for the last bus to Forres. After hours on local busses we got into Dundee late afternoon when it was already plenty dark with a half hour layover, and managed to get some sustenance at a Chinese carryout before arriving in Aberdeen - - 10 minutes after the last bus to Forres had already gone. We then walked from the bus station looking for a B&B, and found one, where they had an upstairs room with cavernous ceilings, and no heat. We could see our breath, but there was a small radiator that accepted 10p coins. We used all we had while that little unit pretended to try to heat the room, and then went downstairs to ask for change for a pound to feed the radiator some more, but the proprietors said they didn't have any 10p coins. So we went back upstairs, took the curtains off the windows for additional covering on the bed, and spent the night huddling and shivering till morning, when we got the earliest bus to Elgin, where I had a dental appointment at 9am. I am not making this up. I'm sorry that I have forgotten the name of the B&B, but you happen to wind up there, let me assure you that it will be interesting.

Try the Redgarth Hotel in Oldmeldrum

http://www.redgarth.com/Redgarth.eu/The_Redgarth.html

Loved Cragellachie in 1998. Walked along the Speyside Trail.

saving for me

Tomintoul might work well for you?