Overview

Visiting The Scotch Whisky Experience for the second time this year I came to realise what an amazing story Scotch whisky has to tell. The experience has been upgraded and launched its new visitor tour earlier this year. Without spoiling the surprises I can say that the accessibility has been dramatically improved, the immersive nature of the experience built upon, and the memories you take away richer.

Transport & Parking

The Scotch Whisky Experience will always be challenged by its location on a hill, with cobbles, heading towards Edinburgh Castle. That said it is possible to get a taxi to drop you off or pick you up from the front door. Others may choose to get a bus up onto the Royal mile and walk up from the lawn market to The Scotch Whisky Experience. If like me, you are a powerchair user, you may choose to wheel up the road yourself but be warned as it's on the route to the castle it is incredibly busy with pedestrian traffic.

Access

It's not often that I decide to give a full five stars to a visitor attraction but sometimes you encounter things where people have gone the extra mile and what they have done makes a massive difference to the stories that people take away. The Scotch Whisky Experience welcomes everyone and in order to achieve this their website contains lots of information to help people decide whether to visit and if a visit may work for them as a disabled person. I was taken by the amount of disabled access information and the thought that has gone into creating Inclusive experiences for everyone. There aren't many attractions in Scotland where you are able to take the tour and it can be available not only in several languages, but also in sign language and I say sign language because it's not just BSL it's also ASL and international sign language will be coming soon as well. The building has an automatic front door and you pass along a corridor and from this point on, as a wheelchair user, you don't have to worry about any other doors with the exception of the lift and perhaps the toilet. A reception area is the first point that you come across and a lowered section of the counter makes it much more welcoming as a visitor. Taking the tour we went into the first area, it is all level access throughout. Here we started on our journey of understanding whisky and where and how it's made. This section of the tour moved through three experience rooms and I won't spoil the story but I will say we moved through the space easily, there were slots for wheelchair users to sit and follow the story and enjoy the experience just like everyone else. We moved from here to a cinematic presentation which again had wheelchair spaces, you could sit near the screen or further away the choice of which is yours. We moved onto call at the blending room as I don't really know quite what it was called where there were wheelchair spaces and there were experiences to be had. These were about types of whiskey, the areas where whisky is produced in Scotland, and more of the story We were very impressed when our hosts quietly and discreetly helped my visually impaired colleague with the scratch cards we were given to describe the smells of the whisky. The superise comes when you visit the "whisky collection" where large room is floor to ceiling with bottles of whisky from around the world. You do get to have a wee dram here which adds to the experience. After the tour you can sit a while in the bar or meander off to visit the shop. Throughout our visit we were able to see and explore everything we wanted and the hosts were happy to help too.

Toilets

There are two accessible toilets in the building. Each has a different layout and they are both fairly spacious, bright, light and spotlessly clean. If you have a larger powerchair like me you may find the second accessible toilet easier for manoeuvring; staff can tell you where to find this.

Staff

Welcoming and friendly which is everything you want. Nothing was too much trouble and we'd certainly be visiting again!

Photos