Guide To Scottish Lowland Whisky Region

In contrast to the overbearing mountains of the Highland region the Southern region is made up of green rolling hills, moorland and plains, and consists of 2 areas known as the Borders and Dumfries & Galloway. They both are situated on the border with England.  This is fertile farmland and is mainly used for that purpose therefore only lightly populated.   Dumfries & Galloway has rocky shoreline on the west coast with Stranraer used as the main hub for ferry traffic over to Northern Ireland, in the East the Borders region faces the unforgiving North Sea which contains Scotland’s other large liquid asset, Oil.
At one time every Scottish city would have had a whisky producing distillery however the Lowlands now has only 2 in production (at the time of writing) however there are some still have bottles in circulation after they have closed down. Often unfairly referred to as the ‘Lowland Ladies’ this region has little peat and triple distils its whisky leading to a lighter, drier, gentler whisky.  This is usually ideal for someone starting off drinking whisky or as a before diner drink. The Lowland area is the least productive all whisky making areas and this in part has been to do with the success of the others and a certain snobbery aimed at a more mild whisky. There is also a view held by some that as close neighbours to the English they are somewhat less Scottish in the Lowland area.
The best known of the Lowland whiskies is Auchentoshan however many tourists visiting Edinburgh are taken to Glenkinchie distillery some closed distilleries such as Rosebank has produced some good whiskies.