‘Wick was like a Wild West frontier town’: Caithness distilleries feature in new A9 guidebook
Caithness distilleries loom large in a newly published travel guide to many of the visitor attractions and historic sites to be found close to the A9.
It should come as no surprise that The A9 Handbook highlights the thriving drinks sector in the far north as the author is Gavin D Smith, who is recognised as one of the world’s leading whisky writers and acts as Whisky Magazine’s contributing editor for Scotland. He also happens to have a Caithness family connection.
The Inverness to Scrabster section of the book contains informative and up-to-date entries on Pulteney Distillery, Wolfburn Distillery, North Point Distillery, 8 Doors Distillery and Dunnet Bay Distillers, as well as non-distillery locations such as heritage centres and castles.
A whiff of alcohol lingers over Smith’s description of Wick in its herring-boom era when well over 1000 boats were based there along with some 3800 fishermen and 4000 curers. At one point there had been 22 pubs in Wick, with another 23 in Pulteneytown, and an estimated 800 gallons of whisky were being consumed every week.
“Not surprisingly, there was often something of a ‘Wild West’ frontier town feel about Wick, and drunkenness and fighting were common,” Smith writes.
He also notes how, from 1922 until 1947, Wick became “one of few places outside the USA to impose prohibition”.
In his preface, Smith recalls that his first A9 journey was in 1961. “I have to admit that it didn’t make a great impression on me, but in my defence, I was only eight months old.
“My family lived in north-east England, but my paternal grandfather hailed from Reiss… and I was taken north to be shown off to relatives. In those days, a car journey from County Durham to Wick was quite an undertaking, involving at least two overnight stops, whereas it can now be accomplished in around seven-and-a-half hours.”
He adds: “What I celebrate every time I take to the wheel on the ‘Great Road North’ is that the scenery remains as awe-inspiring as ever and there are many more attractions to visit within proximity of the road than ever before.”
The A9 Handbook (192 pages, softback, full colour) is published by Orkney-based Posthouse Publishing, priced £14.95. It can be ordered through www.posthousepublishing.com
The book looks at more than 140 places of interest to visit and explore along the full length of what it describes as “Scotland’s spine”.
