I am delighted to be part of a joint entry with Grantown on Spey GC, which has been shortlisted in the final four for the Best Off Course Experience at next month’s Scottish Golf Tourism Awards. A celebration of all things hickory, combined with whiskies rich in the history of Scotland”…..
The Dram Caddy is pleased to share this fantastic video, the third of a six part series, produced by award winner photographer and videographer, John Baikie, shot on location at some of the hotspots of golf and whisky in the Highlands of Scotland. Featuring some of the great characters from the distilleries and golf courses – all with stories to share
Bunnahabhain Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky David Brodie Fortrose & Rosemarkie Golf Club Links Glengoyne Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Tomatin Whisky Tomatin Kevìn Moray Golf Club & Pro Shop Golf Moray Golf Highland Swannies Golf Royal Dornoch Golf Club Dornoch Castle Whisky Bar Dornoch Castle Hotel Kingsbarns Distillery & Visitor Centre DB Clem Dewar’s Aberfeldy Distillery Cabot Highlands Nairn Golf Club 126 Water for Whisky The Ghillies Kitchen Grantown Golf Course
I’m a born and bred Invernessian who ‘stumbled’ into banking straight from school—and ended up staying in banking and finance for 38 years! In early 2024, I felt the time was right for a change. That change came in the form of combining caddying at Castle Stuart with working in the Highland Whisky Shop. At the shop, I began doing more whisky tasting sessions, as well as advising on bottle sales. After a few months, the concept of a whisky tasting where all the drams have a link to golf started to develop—which led me to The Dram Caddy!
It’s incredibly satisfying to give visitors to the Highlands a unique experience with whisky and golfing stories—especially when it’s at the end of a good round of golf and in some amazing venues.
I’m completely independent when it comes to choosing whiskies, and I’m not tied to any particular golf course, so I can give honest opinions on the pros and cons. I think my clients find that refreshing.
One of my favourite quotes about Highland whisky is from a book by Dave Broom, who describes our region’s whiskies as a “loose bag of possibilities.” With his permission, I now try to crowbar that into every tasting I do! Alongside the history of so many distillery locations in the Highlands, there really is something for everyone—from light and fruity Glenmorangie 12, to peated Raasay or Cù Bòcan from Tomatin, to highly sherried Dalmores. I’m a big fan of independent bottlings, such as Inverness Whisky Shop’s cask-strength Glen Ord, and pretty much any indie bottling of Teaninich or Royal Brackla.
A glass of crisp wine in a French vineyard, gelato in the south of Italy, a dram in the Scottish Highlands… food and drink taste unequivocally better when enjoyed in their very home.
The landscape here in the Scottish Highlands lends itself to whisky making. The smell of the maltings, the hospitality from those who have dedicated their careers to crafting beautiful drams and the rugged mountain air and soft flowing rivers that influence the character of the malts – this backdrop makes drinking a malt whisky here something that can only be felt to be described.
For conference and incentive organisers, consider building an away-afternoon into your itinerary to reconnect the team, discover drams, and inspire some great connections. Alternatively, arrange an in-house whisky experience before, during, or after dinner.
If it’s been a few years since you’ve visited a distillery – or if you’ve never been behind the scenes at these homes of whisky wizardry – it’s time to reconsider. The experiences our local partners provide will exceed your expectations tenfold! We’re taking you on a virtual tour of two of our closest partners to tempt you with what awaits…
Our local distillery, Tomatin Distillery Co Ltd, is nestled in the Monaliadth Mountains, just 15 miles south of Inverness.
Here, the progressive nature of the distillery is echoed by the wind farms that glint in the sunlight, standing over a site that opened in the 1800s – long before trunk roads connected this charming hamlet distillery with larger cities.
Our take: A tour of Tomatin offers an honest insight into the world of whisky making – guided through working warehouses and past the cooperage. It’s rare for a distillery to handle barrel-making and repairs in-house, so it’s a great sight to see.
With most of the workers living on-site, this distillery channels passion, history, and a huge amount of love into each bottle, yet the product remains fresh, modern, and reflective of contemporary tastes.
Each year, before the Christmas close-down, the team switches to producing a lightly peated malt named Cu-Bocan, before the stills are cleaned down for a new year. The resulting limited-bottling offers a unique flavour that is not to be missed.
Tomatin also offers the option to bottle your own from casks in their visitor centre and distillery exclusives, only available on-site, including a number of expressions from ‘Warehouse 6’.
Sitting north of Inverness, Glen Ord is a lesser-known but equally special distillery that forms one part of the ‘three corners’ of Diageo’s well-known Singleton whisky empire.
Our take: A modern transformation has injected colour, vibrancy, and contemporary zing into this historic distillery – the stunning bar and visitor centre are not to be missed!
Take a tour here to discover the depth of skill that leads to whisky production and learn how the coastal position influences the drams. Experiences include a Classic Tour that lasts just over an hour, a fully immersive behind-the-scenes Cask to Malt Tour (2.5 hours), or a tasting experience featuring five Singleton expressions paired with canapés.
Visitors can take home a bottle of distillery-exclusive Singleton or bottle their own – each expression slow-batch distilled to capture the essence of the distillery.
For a whisky experience without the need to travel, the Kingsmills Whisky Bar offers an impressive collection of malts, including a number of rare bottlings and unique finds. Our team is hugely passionate about malts and pairing each guest with a dram they will love.
In the comfort of our lounge – or, for larger groups, by the fire in the Adams Room – we offer hosted whisky flight experiences to discover Scotland through our national spirit. Choose to explore four balanced blends, take a Tour of Speyside, or opt for the Cream of the Crop: four malts, each aged 21 years or older and each the crème de la crème of the region.
Our whisky partners are also on hand to curate bespoke experiences for your guests. Connect with the Dram Caddy, Hamish Malcolm, to host a golf-inspired whisky tasting, head down for informal drams at the cities popular whisky snug The Malt Room or take a small group to Beau Wallace‘s secret whisky cellar and tasting room Grand Drams – tucked away just 700 yards from the hotel.
The Wedge is a regular series of research, essays and interviews on the business, money and magic of golf
Hamish Malcolm: I’m going to mention two businesses in Scotland that I’ve been engaging with recently, both centered around hickory golf – playing with the old hickory-shafted clubs.
First is Steve Stuart and the team at Grantown-on-Spey Golf Club, about 30 minutes south of Inverness in the heart of the Cairngorms National Park. They’ve developed a wonderful experience where you can rent sets of hickory golf clubs and play their original nine-hole course, now expanded to 18. What makes it special is their connection to Bobby Cruickshank, a son of Grantown who became an early pioneer of crossing to the US seeking fame and fortune over a hundred years ago. They’ve created a mini museum for him in the clubhouse, so you can embrace the whole experience of how Bobby used to play with the hickories, then go and try them yourself.
The second is Stu Francis at the Hickory Golf Workshop in St Andrews. They offer a totally unique experience where you can either build your own hickory golf club or have them build one for you to take away. They also refurbish hickory clubs. It’s a huge throwback to how golf used to be.
I came across one hickory event last year in the Highlands – it was a car park and clubhouse full of wonderful eccentricity, with golfers from overseas arriving in plus fours to play hickory-style golf.
Playing with hickory clubs is like being in an old-style car where you feel every bump and nuance of the road, rather than a big SUV where you’re sliding over the surface. The ball doesn’t go as far, it’s not forgiving — you have to hunt for the sweet spot! — but it’s definitely worth seeking out as a one-off experience.
HM: I’m saying this with a smile on my face, but it’s much more difficult to give away free whisky in the Highlands than I thought it was going to be!
When I had my concept in mind around June 2024 – creating a lineup of whiskies with golfing connections – I needed an audience to test it out on. I thought, well, there’s only one way to do this: get some people I know in golf clubs or hotels into a room, sacrifice some whiskies, and use them as test pilots.
But the challenge was timing. Once you’re past April and into October, people running golf clubs, golf courses and hotels are simply too busy executing and keeping all the plates spinning. For some left-field finance guy coming in to talk about something they don’t expect to be talking about — everybody was just too busy!
It probably took me two months of offering “Can I give you five whiskies and listen to my chat for an hour?” to actually get people sat down to test and refine the experience. I had to work out what worked, what didn’t work, and how I could present things in a different order.
HM: What I eventually realized was that I needed to reach visitors before they even get to Scotland. Most of my customers are from North America, and they’ve got highly structured itineraries. They might be playing Castle Stuart in the morning and then heading straight to Royal Dornoch in the afternoon or down to the Old Course at St Andrews. For me to be part of their experience, I need to be on their itinerary before they’ve even left the States.
A lot of my visitors stay in Inverness as their hub because we’re close to Castle Stuart and reasonably close to Dornoch, plus there’s decent nightlife and things to do. But I needed to understand that getting on their itinerary had to happen months before they arrived, not when they were already here.
Looking back, I know now that those early conversations would have been a bit easier if I had my website up and running earlier. I didn’t have the website behind me when I was trying to speak to tour operators or individuals who were booking their trips. Having that professional presence on show for my presentations would have made a significant difference in those early pitches.
HM: I’m incredibly excited about two projects with photographer John Baikie, who’s based in the far north of Scotland in Thurso. We had a Zoom call right at the end of 2024, between Christmas and New Year, and John pitched the idea of starting a YouTube channel where we do different episodes in different locations, talking about whisky, golf, maybe innovation, the new and the old, all in different Highland locations.
The concept is to have me front and center in a kilt, presenting to camera – which isn’t my natural habitat, but I’’ll be leaning into it and having fun! We’ll showcase John’s video skills while I get behind the scenes to meet some of the people behind the stories at golf clubs and distilleries.
I then flipped a second idea back to John. He did a brilliant coffee table book on the North Coast 500 route just before lockdown – amazing pictures with light text.
In my house, I have about 30 books on golf and 30 books on whisky — but not one that ties the two together.
So we decided to do a book together – a photography-driven coffee table book featuring distilleries and golf courses, with me supplying the text. We have a plan to get both the YouTube channel running this year and hopefully have the book available for the Christmas market, and I can’t wait to see what happens.
HM: I think the membership issue in Scotland, and the UK more generally, is a challenge that’s not going away anytime soon.
My reflection is that golf clubs need some sort of plan beyond just hoping for more of the same. Social media, for example. There is huge potential for a lot of clubs to go far beyond just a monthly newsletter or one-dimensional posts about upcoming events or last month’s medal winners. It needs to be engaging content, maybe led by the pro. I look at guys like Derek Ramsay at Moray Golf Course, who’s engaging on Facebook and even TikTok. There’s got to be some plan for retaining existing members, getting lapsed members back, attracting new people.
Clubs also need to consider sub-18-hole experiences. Different ways to get people into the clubhouse, even if they’re not playing a full round. I did a tasting at Nairn Golf Club on the first night of the Masters, and I’m hoping to do one at Royal Dornoch tied to the Ryder Cup. These different experiences can engage people and show a bit of innovation rather than just more of the same.
HM: Both through my caddying duties and talking to groups about golf, history and whisky, it’s made me appreciate how excited visitors get to come to Scotland and the Highlands for golf and whisky.
Most of my caddying is done at Castle Stuart, where there’s a new course opening in August. No matter how many times I’ve played there, I never want to get blasé about it. When you come off the third green and go to the fourth tee, you get a sight of Castle Stuart in the backdrop – I’ve seen it dozens of times, but for most visitors, it’s their first time, and even well-experienced, hard-traveled golfers still have a wow moment.
It’s been a real eye-opener seeing how excited experienced people get about things that are right on my doorstep. Over the last year, I’ve seen what’s on my doorstep with fresh eyes, seeing it through the eyes of people experiencing it for the first time.
We sometimes might be guilty of taking for granted what’s in front of us, but for many people, this is a pilgrimage. They’ve been talking about this golf and whisky trip for 15 years. They may have had the whisky through travel retail or in bars, but coming here, to the Highlands, to play golf and drink a few drams of whisky, is almost like coming to Mecca.
Hamish’s signature whisky experience starts at £50 per person for a 60-90-minute session featuring five carefully selected whiskies, each with authentic stories linking them to golf. He travels to licensed premises – whether that’s where clients are playing, staying, or private accommodations – and can arrange complementary elements like charcuterie boards.
For those interested in whisky recommendations, Hamish suggests the Thompson Brothers’ Dornoch Distillery 8-year blend as exceptional value under £40, while his premium pick is a distillery exclusive from Bunnahabhain Distillery on Islay – rare and likely to cost around £200, but if you can get your hands on it, he says it’s worth every penny!
Click here to view the article on The Wedge
Hamish Malcom decided to pursue a role which he truly enjoyed after almost 40 years in finance.
Every Monday, we ask small businesses key questions. Here we speak to Hamish Malcom who runs The Dram Caddy in Inverness.
In February, after almost 38 years spent in banking and finance, mostly in the Highlands, it was time for me to start doing things that I truly enjoyed and that offered me some flexibility.
I’ve been golfing for over 40 years and a keen whisky enthusiast for over 10, and a four-day tour of Campbeltown and Islay with some guys from Manchester in April 2023 started me thinking about working in the whisky business.
With so many visitors to the Highlands interested in both whisky and golf, there had to be a way to ‘blend’ (pun intended) the two.
I started off working in the Highland Whisky Shop in Inverness’ Castle Street before becoming a caddy at both Castle Stuart and my home course of Nairn Dunbar, all the while sketching out a whisky tasting menu where all the drams had a connection to golf.
From my research it appeared that nobody else offered quite the same thing.
Hence The Dram Caddy, which I launched in February of this year.
While it seems like quite a leap from a lifetime spent in banking and finance to golf and whisky, both are about building relationships with a wide variety of people from all walks of life.
I thrive on choice, particularly when it comes to golf shots and whisky, and I love being able to offer clients choices too.
I’ve had amazing encouragement from many people, making the leap much easier than it would otherwise have been.
There’s my long-suffering wife, Diane, and Jim Aitken from the Federation of Small Businesses – I’ve just joined.
And then there’s a whole list of business people who’ve given me encouragement and support – a list too long to name here, but you know who you are.
Loads of wise advice on the questions newcomers to whisky ask from Ferit and Sila at the Highland Whisky Shop. It’s easy to forget what it’s like to be a newbie and their tips are invaluable.
My tastings aren’t all about deep dives into whisky production, or flowery, elaborate descriptions and multiple tasting notes for each dram.
I keep it simple, stick to the essentials, and make it as engaging for people as possible, encouraging them to ask questions and come up with their own descriptions.
Not making the jump from the corporate world much sooner.
I suppose coming up with the concept of a whisky line-up linked to golf courses and golfing anecdotes. I’m looking for opportunities to roll this out.
Tourist taxes and levies on Scotch whisky worry me. Of the people I see causing scenes in Inverness on a Saturday night, no-one has been swigging 12-year-old malt.
I’d love to do three or four tasting sessions a week over the summer, and to drum up repeat business in the process.
I’ve already done tastings at Castle Stuart and Culloden House, and I’m actively trying to get in front of the decision makers at the other notable courses and hotels in the area.
It’s all about adding experiences, memories – and photos – to visitors’ holidays – all things that will last a lifetime.
Out with the golf season I want to reconnect with old business contacts and offer whisky tastings to them and their customers, perhaps golf-themed or involving virtual tours of the whisky regions.
My work is also my hobby, so I relax watching YouTube: whisky review channels like Let’s Talk Whisky, Aqvavitae and The Whisky Friend; and golf channels like Steve Johnston, who recently featured Steve Bremner of Tomatin at Castle Stuart.
I am rediscovering Gary Vaynerchuk’s business books; and for music I love a fellow Hamish – Hamish Hawk.
Buying whisky books – but I now think of it as investing in research.
Check emails to see what’s come in from my American contacts overnight.
It’s much less stressful than in my old life, where I’d often wake up worrying about the same client/case that kept me awake the night before.
I drive with Ping G14, sometimes pulling hard left or spraying wide right.
Images: Jason Hedges/DC Thomson
