Basics - The Rough Guide to Scotland - page 33

enormously depending on the amount of peat
used for drying the barley, the water used for
mashing and the type of oak cask used in the
maturing process. Malt whisky is best drunk with a
splash of water to release its distinctive flavours.

downmarket Daily Record , a tabloid from the same
stable as the Daily Mirror , and the local edition of
The Sun . Most of the main UK newspapers do
produce specific Scottish editions, although the
“quality” press, ranging between the right-wing
Daily Telegraph and the left-of-centre Guardian , are
justifiably seen in Scotland as being London papers.
The provincial daily press in Scotland is more
widely read than its English counterpart, with the
two biggest-selling regional titles being
Aberdeen's famously parochial Press and Journal ,
read in the northeast, Orkney and Shetland, and the
right-wing Dundee Courier , mostly sold in Perth,
Angus, Tayside and Fife. The weekly Oban Times
gives an insight into life in the Highlands and
Islands, but is staid compared with the radical,
campaigning weekly West Highland Free Press ,
printed on Skye; both carry articles in Gaelic as well
as English. Further north, the lively Shetland Times
and sedate Orcadian are essential weekly reads.
Many national Sunday newspapers have a
Scottish edition, although Scotland has its own
offerings - Scotland on Sunday , from the Scotsman
stable, and the Sunday Herald , complementing its
eponymous daily. Far more fun and widely read is
the anachronistic Sunday Post , published by
Dundee's D.C. Thomson publishing group. It's a
wholesome paper, uniquely Scottish, and has
changed little since the 1950s, since which time its
two long-running cartoon strips, Oor Wullie and The
Broons , have acquired cult status.
Scottish monthlies include the glossy Scottish
Field , a parochial version of England's Tatler , covering
countryside interests along with local travel and
fashion, and the widely read Scots Magazine , an
old-fashioned middle-of-the-road publication which
promotes family values and lots of good fresh air.

Beer
Traditional Scottish beer is a thick, dark ale known
as heavy , served at room temperature in pints or
half-pints, with a full head. Quite different in taste
from English “bitter”, heavy is a more robust, sweeter
beer with less of an edge. All of the big-name
breweries - McEwan's, Tennent's, Bellhaven and
Caledonian - produce a reasonable selection of
heavies. However, if you really want to discover
Scottish beer, look out for the products of small
local breweries such as Cairngorm, the Black Isle,
Arran, Fyne Ales, Isle of Skye, Orkney or Valhalla.
Look out, too, for Froach, available mostly in bottles,
a very refreshing, lighter-coloured ale made from
heather according to an ancient recipe.

Water and soft drinks
Scotland produces a prodigious amount of mineral
water , much of which is exported - tap water is
chill, clean and perfectly palatable in most parts of
the country, including the areas of the Highlands
and Islands where it's tinged the colour of weak tea
by peat in the ground. Locally produced Irn-Bru , a
fizzy orange, sickly sweet concoction, has been
known to outsell Coke and Pepsi in Scotland.

The media
Many Scots see the UK's “national media”
as London-based and London-biased,
and prefer to listen to Scottish radio
programmes, read Scottish newspapers,
and - albeit to a much lesser extent -
watch Scottish TV. Local papers are also
avidly consumed, with the weekly papers
in places like Orkney and Shetland read
by virtually the entire adult population.

TV and radio

In Scotland there are five main (sometimes called
“terrestrial”) TV channels : state-owned BBC1 and
BBC2, and three commercial channels: ITV1,
Channel 4 and Channel 5. BBC Scotland produces
news programmes and a regular crop of local-
interest lifestyle, current affairs, drama and comedy
shows which slot into the schedules of both BBC
channels. The vast majority of homes receive
dozens of additional TV channels and radio stations
through digital services like Freeview and Sky.
The BBC radio network broadcasts six main FM
stations in Scotland, five of which are national
stations originating largely from London: Radio 1
(youth-focused, playing pop and dance music),

The press
The Scottish press centres on two serious dailies -
The Scotsman , now published in tabloid format and
based in Edinburgh, and The Herald , a broadsheet
published in Glasgow. Both offer good coverage of
the current issues affecting Scotland, along with
British and foreign news, sport, arts and lifestyle
pages. Scotland's biggest-selling dailies are the