Tomatin whisky route celebrates Five Virtues

Highland distillery Tomatin has given a “unique whisky theme” to Scotland’s North Coast 500 route to mark the launch of the brand’s Five Virtues series.

Photo credit: Jawn McClenaghan

The Tomatin Route 501 takes in Scottish landscapes that reflect the five elements and names of the single malt whiskies – Fire, Earth, Water, Wood and Metal. The route takes in several of Scotland’s most noted beauty spots, including Fairy Glen Falls, Inverewe Gardens and Smoo Cave.

The North Coast 500 route attracted 29,000 additional visitors to Scotland last year, giving an additional £29 million to the Highlands in its first year. A record number of people, 1.7 million, visited Scottish distilleries last year, most of them coming from Germany, UK, US and France. It is already being touted as Scotland’s equivalent of America’s Route 66.

Tomatin marketing manager, Jennifer Masson, said: “Scotland was recently voted the world’s most beautiful country and we hope that visitors will follow our alternative Route 501 and experience some of the country’s idyllic scenery, as well as its most famous export.”

To mark the launch of the route last week, the Highland distillery challenged North Blog adventurer Tristan Cameron-Harper to tackle the new route with a series of challenges.

The news follows the launch of Earth last month, the third expression in the Five Virtues range.

The final expressions in the series, Metal and Water, will be released in early 2018.