Let me introduce myself. My name is Roy Mathers and I'd love to show you the beautiful area where I was born and brought up. The local villages of Craigellachie, Rothes and Aberlour were my childhood haunts but as a kid I didn’t really appreciate their significance in the local and natural history of the Northeast of Scotland. Now though, my interest in history coupled with my passion for the Speyside area has led me to tell you all “About Speyside”.

I spent my childhood at Macallan Distillery where my father was the engineer and from an early age I lived and breathed (literally) the whisky industry. Life was good - a real community of people who all lived, worked and played together. It was a great place to grow up and when I look back I realize how lucky I was.

Having completed my apprenticeship as a carpenter and joiner in the nearby village of Aberlour I worked out and about on many of the country estates and distilleries in the area. After 16 years with my own joinery business there aren’t many stills that I haven’t been inside at one time or another.

When my dad retired in 1993 my parents looked for a new family home and we completely refurbished an 1870’s former gamekeeper’s cottage. Today it is our family home and I have the privilege of living, working and playing in this beautiful glen.

Outside of work I have kept up with my love of hillwalking which I first discovered when I used to disappear off across the fields at Macallan. Today I still get out into the hills as much as I can with Janet who loves the hills as much as I do. Although the Scottish hills are our first love we also try to get to the west coast of the USA when we can to explore the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Northwest.

Life moves on though and I decided that I needed a change of direction away from joinery (my knees and my back had been telling me for a while!) and having met many a visitor in my local pub I found that I really enjoyed answering their questions and helping them to get the most out of their stay. I realised that there wasn’t anybody locally who was offering a personal, tailor made service to small groups of visitors so I really began to think “About Speyside”.

What emerged was that many visitors didn’t want to be part of the mass tourist market; they wanted to go at their own pace and decide where they wanted to go rather than where the tour company thought that they should go. They wanted someone to answer their questions and have a real in depth knowledge rather than just to trot out a script that they had learned. I also found that a lot of people wanted to get off the beaten track and to find out about life from a local’s point of view. One other important thing I found was that a lot of visitors did not want to drive themselves – especially if a visit to a distillery was on the agenda.

This is what “About Speyside” is all about. I would like to work with you, find out about your interests and ideas and then together we will put together an itinerary that suits the time that you have here on Speyside.

It really is that easy – just get in touch to find out how I can help you make the most of your time “About Speyside”.