It’s Halloween, the nights are drawing in and whisky season is well and truly here. So naturally, Mitch and Daz are talking about dead mashmen, haunted maltings, disappearing old ladies, cursed distilleries, the Devil hiding inside a whisky cask and a professor who apparently solved a haunting with two iron stakes and a ley line. Completely normal whisky podcast stuff.
We start with the obvious question: do either of us actually believe in ghosts?
From there, Mitch tells the story of The Balvenie’s Green Lady, including former maltman Robbie Gormley’s poem about meeting her during his final night shift — before sharing his own unexplained experience inside the Balvenie maltings at around 1:30 in the morning.
Then things get properly strange.
There’s the rocking horse in the infamous school room at Drummuir Castle — made considerably creepier when, halfway through telling the story, an old Diageo colleague connected to the castle inexplicably phones.
We get into Hazelwood House and the stories surrounding Wee Jannie, Jura’s Prophecy and the remarkably specific prediction that supposedly came true more than 200 years later, plus Cardhu’s dead mashmen, mysterious footsteps and perhaps the greatest piece of paranormal problem-solving in Scotch whisky history.
Daz takes us to Islay for the legend behind Bowmore’s Devil’s Casks, where the Devil himself supposedly fled the famous Round Church, hid inside a whisky cask and disappeared aboard a ship that was never seen again.
Naturally, we also find time to actually drink some whisky, as Daz gets into Bowmore’s Halloween releases, including the Devil’s Cask 10 and 22 Year Old.
Elsewhere:
Some of these stories are historical.
Some are folklore passed down through generations of distillery workers.
Some are genuinely difficult to explain.
And some are almost certainly complete bollocks.
Happy Halloween.
","author_name":"A Mitch & Daz Production"}