Scottish wine? Apparently it does exist. Alas, I didn’t find any on my press tour of the Highlands, which followed a trail of locations used in the TV series Outlander. I did, however, find figs and grapes, growing in a greenhouse in the gardens of a 15th century castle.
The highlight was a visit to Duncarron, a reconstructed medieval fort, staffed by a motley band of film extras and movie-stunt outlaws, run by a flame-haired Norwegian lady who trussed me up in plaid before sacrificing me to her hired goons. Once their bloodlust was sated, they fed us pea soup, beef stew and honey-oat biscuits with stewed fruit. It was the best food we had all weekend (in yer face, five-star hotels).
The real star, though, was the landscape: the rusty-coloured gorse bushes; the grass that sparkled ultra-vivid green under the sun’s marmalade glow; the magic mushrooms. Well, I won’t go into that… pictures tell it better than words ever could…
Cairngorms National Park.
Hired goons at Duncarron medieval fort.
Bo’ness vintage railway.
Culloden battlefield.
Streets of Culross.
Colourful cranny at Culross Palace.
Culross Palace gardens view.
Oops, how did that get in there?!
Grape vines in Scotland?: Drummond Castle Gardens.
Reflections: a poignant new retrospective at Drummond Castle Gardens.
Duncarron goons; trainee bandits.
Highland Folk Museum roof at dusk.
Highland Folk Museum rainbow.
Highland Folk Museum, pensive tour guide.
There’s bin a mur-dah!
The Wine Ninjas 
Awesome! I’m so getting this phone.
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