Walks and whiskies!’ Those were my two demands as we set off to the Scottish Highlands. The latter, obviously, would be taken by a crackling fireside, as my feet thawed out after a cheek-reddening walk through unspoiled countryside. As I often say, I don’t ask for much.
Neither my partner Giles nor I had much experience of Scotland beyond an Edinburgh city break; but we both had romantic images of its rolling hills and pine-fringed lochs, not to mention a food scene singing with winter produce. Roasted game, forest mushrooms, smoked fish – we would eat it all.
While the farthest-flung Highlands and Islands grab the most headlines, I’d heard about the beauty of the more central countryside around the Cairngorms. Here vast, lonely hills and mossy castles echo with tales of clans
