Highland Spring

What do you do on a wet Easter Bank Holiday Monday?

Well, we decided to go and look where some of this water goes.

Just twenty minutes up the road is the village of Blackford, where the pure water coming off the nearby mountains today enjoys international status.

For it is the home of the bottled Highland Spring water.

Unfortunately there is nothing to see except some giant hangar like buildings.

So we hotfooted it to the Tullibardine distillery in the village for a wee dram and I learn that a Welshman, William Evans, bought it in 1947 converted the building, a brewery that had been mothballed, into a distillery.

The abundance of water in and around Blackford has had a strong influence on the development of the area. One of the earliest breweries in Scotland was established in Blackford in the 15th century. The official chronicles of the period state that James IV, on his return from his coronation in Scone in 1488, paid 12 Scots shillings for a barrel of ale from Blackford.



Prior to the Second World War Blackford was famous for its boots as well as beer and most of the boots for the highland regiments in the First World War were made in Blackford.




No visit to the village would be complete without climbing the hill to the site of the original Auld Church built in the 16th century, now standing derelict but offering spectacular views across the countryside.

And that's where I got todays blip pic.

More in blipfoto folio : Blackford.
.
And the rain had stopped.

More info. about Blackford