How many of us promised to be more organised in 2024? With the season of gift giving in full swing, it is inevitable some of us will be wishing we’d stuck with the resolution as we hunt for that ‘special something’ for friend, family or colleague.
The good news is that Scotland is awash with amazing gifts thanks to the creativity of our makers and producers. By the time you read this, it might be too late to secure a physical present, but there are luxurious gifts that can be booked right up to the big day.
Tickets or gift tokens for attractions and events are a simple solution, but what about putting together a special weekend escape?
Perhaps one of the most dramatic ideas involves taking a helicopter ride to Skye for a gourmet food and whisky break.
There was much excitement when Talisker Distillery teamed up with an iconic Skye restaurant to create an exclusive dining experience at the Carbost distillery’s stylish waterfront space on the shores of Loch Harport.
The Three Chimneys at Talisker was initially to be a pop-up in the spring, but the good news is that it will be available next year. Designed to celebrate a shared passion and philosophy around provenance and sustainability and respect for local produce and craftspeople, the experience showcases the richness of Skye’s larder.
Touch down on the Three Chimneys’ helipad, stay in the House Over-By and add a tour of Skye’s oldest distillery and you have the recipe for a very special weekend.
It’s always good to have an excuse for a weekend break and Burns Night is providing some interesting ideas for a January escape.
Knockinaam Lodge, the luxurious 10-room hotel nestled in a remote cove on the Rhins of Galloway, is celebrating the poet with a birds of prey experience, blending tradition, a seven-course Burns-inspired tasting menu and awe-inspiring wildlife.
In Edinburgh, the floating hotel Fingal and the Royal Yacht Britannia have teamed up to mark the poet’s birthday. There’s the usual traditional flourishes as well as a tour, a five-course menu served in the state dining room followed by a dram and storytelling. Retire to your cabin on Fingal and maybe plan for one of its special afternoon teas in the top-deck Lighthouse Restaurant.
Once Burns Night is behind us and as the days lengthen, we can look forward to a string of festivals. Scotland has so many to pick from: arts, literature and, of course, music.
The Wigtown Book Festival is a lovely event in the autumn and it also features one of Scotland’s more unusual Airbnbs. At the Open Book, accommodation comes with a bookshop to run. For bookworms – and writers – it really is the ultimate sweetie shop experience. In fact, when I took it over last month, it was hard to break away and explore the beautiful Galloway countryside on its doorstep.
The initiative was the idea of author and film-maker Jessica Fox, an American who fell in love with Wigtown and settled there. The bookshop B&B brings in additional funds for the book festival.
Golf is a good spring activity – blow away the cobwebs in some glorious countryside – so whether it’s Gleneagles, Turnberry, Muirfield or St Andrews, a booking for a round on a famous course might just be your festive hole in one.
The chance to discover a new way to exercise is also a good result in my book. In 2024, virtual reality surfing in France was perhaps the most memorable but I also found myself reacquainted with a bicycle.
It’s more years ago than I care to remember since I last rode a bike… but when an event in Glasgow threw up the chance to go on a tour of the west end, I signed up.
Cycling along the Clyde and up into the University with Martin Heaney of Gallus Cycles, we peddled through history and culture, entertained and energised in equal measure. We covered a lot of ground – 12km and hundreds of years – as Annie, one of the Gallus fleet of former Post Office bikes, and I wheeled by.
For the foodie in your life, a place on a cookery masterclass might be the answer. There are several cook schools across the country, so whether it’s the secret to cooking lobster or cake icing that’s an easy win.
I rather like the thought of going one step further and learning how a butcher prepares ingredients for you. Bowhouse in Fife has a butchery course that intrigues me: a half lamb breakdown, although the burger & sausage-making course might provide more practical skills for the summer barbecue.
You know you will be in good hands whichever you choose, as the Butchery at Bowhouse was founded to connect customers with the sustainably reared and wild meat from the Balcaskie Estate.
Food is inseparable from drink which is another fail-safe book-ahead gift. The flurry of activity in the spirits sector continues, with several distilleries recently opened or under construction across Scotland. With so many to choose from, picking the one to visit can be bewildering … unless you know the whisky equivalent of a Munro bagger.
It has been good to see the arrival of the stills at Ardgowan Distillery at Inverkip in November, the opening of Benbecula in the summer and Port Ellen in the spring. The Cabrach Distillery in Moray has also made its first distillation of whisky in more than 170 years.
Tours come in all guises, but it is inevitable that it is the stories you hear that make each distillery special.
In Glasgow, at the Queen’s Dock, the Clydeside Distillery was created by Tim Morrison, a member of the family that owns Bowmore, Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch.
The distillery, which opened in 2017, brings its home – a former pumphouse – full circle. Originally built by Tim’s great-grandfather John Morrison, the building pumped hydraulic power for the dock’s swing bridge. John also helped in raising the water height at Loch Katrine, the source of the pure soft water for today’s Clydeside single malt whisky.
Another piece of whisky history is given a modern twist in Falkirk. The Rosebank distillery actually dates back to 1840 but fell asleep in the 1990s. Reawakened by Ian Macleod Distillers, it reopened in the summer reviving a whisky referred to as the ‘King of the Lowlands’.
Another star of the Macleod portfolio is Edinburgh Gin and this month its Arches Distillery in Market Street is welcoming its first visitors. The flurry of distillery activity continues with another Scottish gin brand, Eden Mill, anticipating the opening of its long-awaited distillery at Guardbridge near its spiritual home of St Andrews next year.
