Raasay

It's just consistent hitters.

I think still one of the drunkest I've ever been was on a Rassay tasting where we did seven cast-strength drams, hefty drams as well.

Long live.

I mixed them all.

It was the chinkapin wood.

It was so good.

Always got good memories at Rassay.

We were saying before we jumped into this that the red, what did you say? Do you say it was

... from beginning to end.

And the thing I wanna a- add on here be- before we move on to our Raasay over here, but this is one of two Dalmunachs we're putting out in the world, uh, in 2026.

And whereas this is special 'cause it's the first third this year, then the second third-

Yeah.

[laughs]

I was with my family.

I didn't get the ferry over to Raasay, the wee-

Oh, that's right.

This is a long episode, and I was going to split it into two parts, but having listened to it, it would lose some of the momentum of Bill's delivery.

For information, the Isle of Rona lies between the Scottish mainland and the Isle of Skye at the o- north end of the Isle of Raasay.

I'm sure I'll be speaking to Bill again, and I hope you enjoy the episode.

Thank you.

So in 2003 the deer came.

2005, I, I would have to refer to my notes but, you know, we'll just guess at the moment.

Got a phone call from Raasay to say that they'd shot this stag on Raasay [laughs] and they had a tag on its ear.

Was it one of mine? And I said, "What was the number?" And, and she read it out to me.

What great playing, isn't it? From Cameron McNeill from Cape Breton, and the audience loved that too.

His suspense and reels from the Rassay contest, beginning with Glenthilt Lodge, the editor's favourite.

Traditional reel, The Smith's Burn, Miss Charlotte's Reel, Angus the Winemaker's Reel by Kynan Beaton.

From Cape Breton and Caillach, Leah Rahersie, a very appropriate tune to finish with, The Old Grey Lady of Rassy.

manhattan

um interesting there's only 161 people in the 2011 census on russia 1.6 million manhattan but they're roughly about the same size and we've got the sound of russia in one side and we've got the inner sound between us and the mainland so the sound of russia's between us and sky so we've got all of that so you know you You could theorize that in time you're going to get that maritime influence over time.

Well, tell me about this globally famous six-cask maturation thing because I've got to tell you, out of all those questions I showed you, about 20 of them are about the six-cask maturation.

Okay, so...

If I turn it that way.

Oh, no, I'll turn it that way.

and you can see the shape of duncana and if you look at our distillery from the outside you'll see that the two roofs the the gold roof and the black roof all have this uh shape of duncana and it's just representing that highest point on russian

all right

Come in, sit down.

Get yourself ready to enjoy your piping because the island of Raasay is our destination this week.

I'm just back from there from this year's Raasay Restitution Contest organized by Hamish Moore and his committee.

It's all designed to encourage a closer connection between Highland piping and its Gaelic roots, and indeed its dancing roots too, step dance specifically.

That's where we're heading right now.

[upbeat bagpipe music] Thank you, Ailie.

Thanks as always to RG Hardie Bagpipes.

So yes, 12 of us pipers came together in the magnificent and deeply historical Raasay House, a place that's seen and heard a lot of music over the centuries, a lot of piping specifically.