Aberfeldy - Dewars Mini Tattoo

On the 14th of August the band traveled up to the highlands to the Dewars distillery at Aberfeldy along with the Scots Guards, The Black Watch, The Norwegian Kings Guard, The Imps and the Trinidad and Tobago steel drum band.

We'd made a choice to do Aberfeldy as the other alternative was to do the Edinburgh Cavalcade which is basically a long street march through the city where Aberfeldy got us out of the city and we could see some of the highlands.

The event is a mini tattoo and takes place in the grounds of the world famous Dewars distillery under the watchful eye of the Dewars Drum Major who stands in his bronze glory to one side of the gardens looking as he does on bottles of the celebrated dew.

In terms of format it was exactly as in the real tattoo minus a few acts and on a smaller scale, it was also very informal and relaxed so we enjoyed ourselves. The military had also brought along some rather fine ale, which we helped ourselves to and it being quite a warm day the ale, which was chilled, went down in lumps.

After finishing the mini tattoo it was off into the "Visitors Centre" where we could see how whisky was produced and also where we could sample the whisky produced there. Very nice and no limit on consumption - of course we sampled in moderation. ('Course we did - Ed.)

It seemed to finish very quickly and before long it was back on the busses and on the road to Edinburgh. The main thing for us, and what cannot be denied, is the sheer beauty of that part of Scotland, every corner in the road opened up into a picture postcard panorama that left us breathless.

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