5 min.
The Bold SPIRITS of SPEYSIDE
I ARRIVE EXPECTING tartans, pipes, and single malts. I discover antler can-delabra, couture kilts, and bud vases hand-turned from sweet chestnut, walnut, and yew. I presume a glorious, fixed tradition will greet me on a recent trip to Scotland; instead I step into a vibrant, evolving world of craft.
My journey is into the country’s northeast heart: the river-threaded valleys of the Speyside whisky region and the neighboring heather-studded slopes of the Cairngorms and Grampians. As I travel from distillery to distillery, from workshop to atelier, from reimagined country house hotel to design-intensive shop, I witness a fascinating, very Scottish conversation of the maker with the material. And I learn that while bursting in a new bloom today, that conversation has marked the local approach to land, water, tools, wood, textiles,…
