Burns Night

Bryan at Why Now? reminds us that tonight is Burns Night. It is the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns the famous Scot poet who was born this day in 1759 in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. It is traditional among those lovers of Burns to gather on this night and recite his poems and raise a 'wee dram' of good malt whisky.

I won't be doing the celebration with other Scotsman or be having haggis but I will raise a toast to him this evening. The picture is of one my prized bottles of single malt (sadly almost empty). This is a special bottling of 24 year old single malt from the Royal Lochnagar distillery in Crathie, Aberdeenshire near Balmoral castle in the Eastern Highlands. This is bottled at cask strength and is a whopping 55.7% alcohol. It was distilled in 1972 and bottled in 1997. This distillery(1845) is one of the only ones ever to receive an appointment by the British Crown and was given the 'Royal' designation by Queen Victoria and King Edward VII as well as George V.

The little wooden cup next to the bottle is an antique Scottish quaich which is a traditional cup for whisky in the Highlands. This one is a treen cup and is made of light and dark wood put together like a barrel and lashed together. I acquired it in an antique shop in Dumfries, Scotland which also happens to be where Burns died in 1796 at the young age of 37.