The Isle of Islay is closer to the ‘island of Ireland’ (as politicians call it when squabbling over the EU ‘backstop’) than it is to Scotland’s big cities. Out there, in other words. And yet for a first-timer it seems like a microcosm of Scotland as a whole, with its mountains, heathered moorland, grazing sheep, … Read more
Britain at its best: Drinks by the dram and crumbling cathedrals in Scotland’s whisky heartland The Daily Mail’s Hugo Brown visited Moray, an hour-and-a-half west of Aberdeen He stayed at Dalvey East Lodge, a cottage which sleeps six, in Forres Pubs here have menus of whisky longer than their wine lists, says Hugo By Hugo … Read more
THE ARTS QUESTORS, JESTERS AND RENEGADES by Michael Coveney (Bloomsbury £25, 216pp) Michael Coveney says, in a statistic that stretches credulity, that there are 2,500 amateur dramatic societies in Britain, putting on 35,000 productions a year in disused cinemas, chapels, barns and converted Nissen huts. The most spectacular venue is the Minack in Cornwall, carved … Read more