Stirling Castle hosted the start and finish of the Scottish Malts rally for the first time this year, avoiding the traffic hassles of Edinburgh and firing rally cars straight into challenging roads and fabulous scenery. The Malts has always been designed to be novice-friendly, while remaining a real challenge for experienced crews trading seconds at the top of the field, so it was good to see the tradition maintained of a practice, non-scoring regularity section at first to get crews into the spirit of the event.

The battlefield of Bannockburn was an appropriate location for the first proper regularity to start, ending at Flanders Moss, a remarkable raised bog: formed over many thousands of years at a millimetre a year, Flanders Moss is a peat bog up to seven metres thick that has grown above the surrounding land, 98% water in content yet supporting itself from rainwater alone. Much of it was destroyed in 18th century land reclamation, but enough remains for it to be a site of major scientific interest.

It would take pages to describe in detail every site of interest on the rally route, so that�s just a taster: if you want to learn more, come on the rally next year! Suffice it to say that the next stop on the route was the magnificent ancient seat of Scottish royalty, Scone Palace!

Climbing into the Highlands, competitive types enjoyed a great thrash around the cones on a gravel test at Glenshee Ski Centre, clouds of dust and gravel flying in all directions as vehicles like the monster Ford Bronco of US competitors Brad and Jennie Mottier danced nimbly across the course. Rather more decorous behaviour was expected at the next stop, British royalty�s northern seat Balmoral, where the rally enjoyed the privilege of parking at the front of the house, normally the sole preserve of royal carriages.

The new format for this year�s Malts extended to four nights at the same Aviemore hotel, ideally placed for days out into the Highlands in all directions without the hassles of daily packing and repacking of luggage. Scotland offers an unmatched range of different driving challenges from rolling, heavily-treed winding valley roads to steep and barren mountain hairpins, ideal for the Scottish Malts� combination of brain and traction-testing tests and consistency-challenging accurate regularities.

Competitors gave the new format a resounding thumbs-up, enjoying the opportunity to concentrate more on their regularity timing or the social side of the rally rather than worrying about re-packing bags and finding the next hotel. Stunning weather all through the event sent all home raving about the beauty of Scotland in May: the lower hills were carpeted in yellow gorse, the high mountains mellow in the sunshine and the lochs reflecting the sky in deepest blue. Against this glorious background, battle was joined for the best performances on driving tests and regularities between all kinds of classic cars, from 1930 Invicta to 1978 Porsche 911.

Day two, setting out from Aviemore for the first time, saw the route take in the battlefield of Culloden after the rally�s first distillery, the little-known Royal Brackla. It would not be the last, as the rally headed up the east side of the Highlands taking in Balblair and Glenmorangie, via the ever-popular seaside go-kart track test at Littleferry. Two airfield tests gave more opportunity to explore cars� handling, rewarding precision as much as speed, before a visit and another test at Mohammed al Fayed�s stunning pink palace, Balnagown Castle.

Day three saw the rally head out to the north-west coast and the most breathtaking coastal mountain scenery of the entire rally, blessed as it was by warm sunshine all day. Regularity tests gave drivers time to enjoy the wonderful views, while navigators tanned the backs of their necks as they pored over stopwatches and route instructions. Those who took it seriously anyway � plenty more settled back and enjoyed the views too, content to maintain a reasonable distance from the car in front and thereby achieve not too embarrassing a time at the end of the day! A pair of stonking regularity sections around Loch Ness gave plenty of challenge, including the astonishing Corkscrew Pass, climbing the almost sheer mountainside on the south bank of the Loch via a road so narrow and twisty you wonder how they could ever have made and surfaced it.

Day four was distillery day, heading into the lush green scenery of the Spey Valley and calling at Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, The Macallan and Glenfarclas, not forgetting the Speyside Cooperage and a stylish lunch at that upmarket knitwear emporium, Johnstons of Elgin.

At last it was time to bid farewell to Aviemore � where all had enjoyed a joyful Ceilidh as well as devious variations on two tricky car park tests � and head south once more, via such evocative place names as Dalwhinnie, Kinloch Rannoch and Schiehallion to Edradour and the stunning all-white Blair Castle: a glorious lunch halt and host to one of the most-enjoyed tests of the rally, up the castle driveway. Two more regularity sections kept the pressure on as the rally rolled on to Glenturret, home of Famous Grouse whisky, and the finish at the Falkirk Wheel.

This is the spectacular centrepiece of the �84.5 million �Millennium Link�, the UK�s largest canal restoration project, developed by British Waterways to reconnect the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal, re-establishing east-west coast access for boats. It actually lifts a whole section of canal, complete with canal boats, up (or down) 24 metres � the height of an eight storey building. Incredibly, it moves 600 tonnes of water and canal boats from canal to canal in four minutes, consuming no more electricity than it takes to boil eight kettles of water. From there, competitors returned to Stirling for the final night and a splendid banquet in the imposing main hall of Stirling Castle, enhanced by four of Scotland�s prettiest Highland dancers.

Best on tests, and winners overall, were Charles Colton and Peter Stokes in the 1978 911SC, but running them close all the way and best on navigation were Mark and Sue Godfrey in their 1951 MG TD. And if that wasn�t enough proof that any car can excel under the unique HERO scoring system, second best on tests was the BMW 3.0 CSL of Conn and Paul Williamson, while second best on navigation was the 1936 Alvis Speed 25 of Bill Ainscough and Catriona Rings. See �Results� for the full list of award winners.
�We�ve only done two HERO events before,� explained a delighted Charles Colton at the finish. �This year�s Malts was well organised, with little queuing at tests and an exceptional route. The cloverleaf with a central hotel was a good format.�

Next year, to celebrate the tenth Malts, the rally becomes the Celtic Malts with the start and first two days in Ireland, followed by the relatively short ferry crossing to Scotland before once again finishing at Stirling Castle: don�t miss this phenomenal new development on everyone�s favourite rally!