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It was while serving with the RAF at Lossiemouth and Kinross that Mark Braivdwood, a lowland Scot, got to know Speyside. Even more fortuitously he met Karen, now his wife and co-proprietor of The Mash Tun at Aberlour.
It is no surprise that a pub with a whisky distillery nearby is called The Mash Tun. What comes as a bit of a shock to those seeing it for the first time is that the building is shaped like a ship – the inspiration of its original owner, an ex-sea captain. In the days when Aberlour had a railway station it was known as The Station Bar, but nothing suits it better than its current name.
More fundamental than its nomenclature, however, has been the transformation brought about by Mark and Karen since purchasing the property in October 2004. The pub had been sorely neglected for many years and required extensive renovation and refurbishment, a process which took some 18 months. Guest accommodation was added upstairs in the form of four stylishly decorated bedrooms and one luxuriously commodious suite, each named after a well-known distillery in the area. Appropriately, pride of place goes to the Aberlour Suite.
The changes downstairs were equally dramatic, not least to the decor in the bar which now echoes the Aberlour brand colours, though Mark insists this is a coincidence. The bar itself boasts a burgeoning selection of malt whiskies and the small but imaginative menu makes the most of local produce. Breakfast treats include free range scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.
The quality and thoughtfulness of the food is largely down to Mark’s background. Having trained as a chef at Moray College in Elgin, he and Karen went off to London to gain further experience in their chosen careers, which in Karen’s case was all to do with computers. For Mark a stint as a pastry chef at Harrods – a “real eye opener,” he says – eventually led to running the catering on the “Silver Fleet” Thames river boats where the corporately wealthy and the sometimes famous wined and dined.
It has all proved invaluable experience for playing host to The Mash Tun’s wide-ranging customer base, with whisky enthusiasts, sporting visitors and those engaged on distillery business cheerfully mixing with locals in the bar. “The crossover between the different groups, especially at night, is all part of the atmosphere,” observes Mark. Dennis Hendry, who runs the Visitors Centre at the Aberlour distillery, is one local who regularly calls in.
Unsurprisingly, Mark has become a connoisseur of Aberlour Single Malt. He considers a’bunadh an “absolutely brilliant drink” and rates Aberlour 10 Year Old “higher than any other 10-year-old from Speyside.” Nothing demonstrates his attachment to the spirit of Aberlour more, though, than the fact that he and Karen were married, in September 2006, at the distillery.
A minister from nearby Keith officiated at the ceremony, which was followed by an Aberlour whisky dinner in the Fleming Rooms below. Six different Aberlour expressions accompanied the various courses, starting with Aberlour 10 Year Old and finishing with a’bunadh, served with dark chocolates and coffee.
ww.mashtun-aberlour.com
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