"At Copenhagen, where the vessel called after leaving Kirkwall, the King of Denmark, the Emperor of Russia and a very distinguished party were entertained on Board. The Highland Park was pocured and pronounced by all to be the finest whisky they had ever tasted '
(Sir Donald Currie, 1883)

North Highland Malts
Highland Park
Highland Park Distillery, on the edge of Kirkwall in Orkney, has more of an affinity with the West Highlands, flavour-wise, than with the palish, fragrant, fresh-flavoured North Highland group of malts. Highland Park is a medium-bodied whisky with a heathery aroma - in some bottlings this becomes very aromatic, like a barber's shop - and dry, peaty notes. The flavour combines heather-honey with spice and almonds, and the finish is dry.

Scapa
Its neighbour, Scapa, stands on the northern shore of the Scapa Flow. It was one of the most up-to-date distilleries when it was built in 1885, but it has been much added to over the years. Scapa is interesting, but has never been considered a front runner.

Coastal distilleries
The North Highland distilleries are all coastal (apart from the southern most, Tomatin, and the latter is included for convenience: its product has more of a Speyside character).

The most northern is Pulteney, which produces a delicious, fragrant, dry whisky, long referred to as 'the Manzanilla of the north'. Then comes Clynelish at Brora (built in 1969, beside an earlier (1819) distillery) - a sophisticated and complex whisky (hyacinths, fennel, Latakia tobacco), it was once very highly regarded and deserves to be better known. It is a core malt in the super de-luxe Johnnie Walker Gold blend.

Glenmorangie
Glenmorangie, made near the ancient Royal Burgh of Tain on the Cromarty Firth, is the most popular malt in Scotland. Medium-bodied and delicately complex in its standard (10 Years Old) bottling, it is a supremely well-made whisky. The distillery pioneered the idea of re-racking from bourbon to sherry-wood for the final years of maturation, with great success. This is now much imitated.

North Highland Malts' Characteristics
North-Highland malts tend to be light bodied, delicate whiskies with complex aromas and a dryish finish sometimes spicy, sometimes with a trace of salt. Some are faintly peaty (Highland Park, Scapa, Clynelish, Balblair); in others the smoke is more like Lapsang Suchong (Pulteney, Teaninich, Dalmore). They cannot take too much sherry-wood maturation (although, the sherry-finishing technique developed at Glenmorangie suits them well).