Highland Park Distillery

Founded in 1798, this distillery boasts that it makes the best single malt whisky in the world. It and the Scapa Distillery are the only two producers of whisky on Orkney. The method of preparation is certainly one of the most traditional that I've seen, with the "malting floor", a room in which wheat and spreads are manually turned by blades and the 15,000 liter capacity fermentation barrels are still made from wood (the majority of Scottish distilleries now use metal). Wood from the sherry region of Jerez de la Frontera in Spain and American oak are used for the barrels.

The tour was great, with the most attentive staff I've seen so far.