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During the Battle of Waterloo (18th June 1815), The Duke of Wellington’s command post was set up under the now famous Waterloo Elm.  This historic tree was located just south west of where the sunken land met the Genappe-Brussels main road – was being the operative word as, in the wake of the battle, the…

As we’ve noted elsewhere on the Quaichshop website, a range of different designs of quaichs have long been used to celebrate the birth of a baby, to toast the new child’s health, and also at christening ceremonies.  Quaichs, and other vessels such as porringers and bowls, have been given as gifts to new babies right…

Even the hardworking Quaichshop folk have to have some recreation time, so we recently organised a staff day out (actually split into two half days) to make our own beer in the Craft Beer Kitchen at Stewart Brewing, Loanhead, near Edinburgh.  Day One included the selection of malt and hops, and the creation of our…

As we note in the Our Story section of the Quaichshop website, retailing quaichs grew out of our bricks and mortar Angles shops, in Edinburgh’s Morningside and Corstorphine districts.  Angles opened in 1987, and our stores were an integral part of the high street shopping experience at both locations until 2017.  The high street stores…

Last month’s blog described the Isle of Barra Distillery project, which is currently offering the opportunity to invest in this exciting social enterprise initiative.  The Isle of Barra Distillery joins the distilleries on Skye, Raasay and Harris, which form the Hebridean Whisky Trail, launched in August 2018 by Karen Betts, chief executive of the Scotch…

Continuing on the theme of the inextricable link between quaichs and whisky, news comes from the Hebrides of an interesting initiative, designed to include and involve the local community. The classic 1949 film Whisky Galore, starring (amongst others) Gordon Jackson and Joan Greenwood, is familiar to people across the globe, famous for its quintessentially Scottish…

Based as we are in Scotland’s capital city, quaichshop is very aware of Edinburgh’s pull as a tourist destination, and its year round attractiveness to visitors from across the globe.  So we are excited to hear that yet another string is about to be added to Edinburgh’s tourism bow, in the form of a state-of-the-art…

We recently visited the National Museum of Scotland, just in time for the final day of the exhibition “Rip it Up: The Story of Scottish Pop”, which provided an excellent tour of Scotland’s contribution to the world of popular music from the 1950s to the present day.  Many memories were stirred, and we were reminded…

During the late summer, we’ve been fortunate to have travelled by train through Portugal and Spain, including the former’s fabulous port and wine producing Douro Valley, and the latter’s sherry triangle in Andalucia. The Portugal part of the trip allowed us to visit both Taylor’s port wine lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the…

When I was a child and youth in the late 50s, 60s and early 70s, my mother’s family lived in Parkside Street in the South Side of Edinburgh, just off the Pleasance.  My grandmother’s home was a flat on the second top floor of number 14, and I can clearly remember looking out of her…