Deanston Distillery – An Afternoon Drive in the Trossachs
This is a short tale of Jim taking his lovely wife Jacqueline out for a drive and lunch only a week or two ago.
We found ourselves driving through the beautiful countryside heading form the Stirling area towards Callander on the A84, passing Doune and Deanston Distillery (Jim and Dougie need to give this one a visit).
We firstly stopped off in Callander and visited one or two of the quaint shops that accommodate both sides of the High Street. When in Callander we always pay a visit to the shop called “Screw It” this is a wonderful hardware shop, and as we have two coal / log fires at home we get all our fire ironmongery there (fire fronts, coal nests etc) As Jacqueline might say of Jim “he is a bit of a geek when it comes to ‘mens toys, tools etc) but Jim does admit to being able to spend at least an hour in this shop searching for some new fangled odds and ends. Whilst in the shop we got Dougie some brochures on log burning stoves / fires for his home, which he is hoping to convert.
On to lunch we headed for The Lade Inn.
The Lade Inn,
Kilmahog,
near Callander,
Perthshire,
FK17 8HD
telephone 01877 330152
website www.theladeinn.com
e-mail info@theladeinn.com
This great Inn sits on the left hand side of the road on the A821 just at the junction with the A84, as if you are leaving Callander and heading for Aberfoyle via the Dukes Pass.
This Inn serves its own real ale and has a great selection of bar meals, all of them great and of excellent value, Jim had fish and chips, great and ample portions. Jacqueline had scampi and chips, again lovely with an ample portion, great traditional pub lunch food. If you are visiting Callander we suggest you drive the little way out and dine at the Lade Inn you will not be disappointed.
On the Whisky front its selection was very basic with all the usual suspects, but no great range of malts that Dougie and I might have spent a few hours tasting and enjoying (on the assumption one of the wives were driving).
This Inn every Friday and Saturday night you will find some traditional Scottish Folk music from around 8pm until late, check their website for some special events coming up.
Jim found that the best part of his lunch there was visiting the the Scottish Real Ale Shop, which is next door to the Inn, what an Aladdin’s cave this is. It is sure to have the greatest range of bottled real ales anywhere in Scotland under the one roof, well over 100 Scottish bottled beers and some ciders as well.
Their website is www.scottishrealales.com go on check it out, you for sure, will not be disappointed.
As Jim is a lover of Islay, well, this ale shop even sells Islay beer, I bought some it is great. The rest of their selection comes from the Shetlands and the Borders and all points in between.
The Ale shop will give you discount on case’s, special deals to CAMRA members, tastings throughout the summer months and even have beers for vegetarian and vegans.
Check their opening times, but the shop is open seven days a week.
Go on, go on give them a visit after your lunch at the Inn and as always remember to tell them the Whisky Boys sent you.