For 225 years, the whiskies of Highland Park have shouted, “ORKNEY” – a bold yet simple assertion that cuts through the lore and myth of a distillery with a storied past. Still, every drop of Highland Park, soaked in the wildness of Scotland’s Orkney Islands, recounts a thousand legends. Long before Highland Park sprang from Orkney’s jagged sandstone, here lived Vikings whose folklore told of sword-wielding Scandinavians in horned helmets disembarking from dragonhead ships to pillage the locals’ belongings and drink from their non-Viking skulls – perfect fodder for Hollywood. In truth, we know little more than fragments of the Vikings who arrived in Orkney in the late eighth century.
It is not hard to see why the Vikings stayed. Green fields in all directions brim with fertile soil which nourishes the two-row barley that survives the salty winds whipping off the chiselled cliffs and the sea below. Picturesque lochs and creeks bring fresh water
