Hats Kilmarnock and Off the Whiskey trail!

Sir, reading from the recent ‘On This Day’ post, it is interesting to know that 2nd Goorkhas (in particular Capt H Becher) were the ones who considered replacing the Kilmarnock hat. I also recall some years ago after arriving in Glasgow, in pursuit of self-interest, visiting Kilmarnock in order to find out its historical link with the ‘hat’. Only to find out that actual ‘hat makers’ were based not there but in Stewarton, a small town up further north of East Ayrshire. I am yet to go there and explore!

While in Kilmarnock, I also discovered one of Scotland’s oldest working distilleries, home to the famous Johnnie Walker (JW) whiskey which is very popular among the Gurkhas. I met a G4S security guard at the gate who told me that the factory had been closed for years, now it was only a bottling plant, all distilleries had moved up in the Highlands and I was the first visitor he had seen in years. He further said that people tend to think that it’s the world’s number one whiskey, especially the Japanese (he probably thought I flew in from Japan!) but would not say the same to himself rather it was just a commercial whiskey. He then kindly allowed me to take a quick ‘selfie’ in front of the iconic ‘JW’ sign before I headed back to Glasgow, completely sober!

2 gr blog pics

1 Comment on Hats Kilmarnock and Off the Whiskey trail!

  1. Sudan, thank you for these insights and well done for researching these important parts of the 2GR heritage, but I’m sorry you didn’t have a chance to sample the Johnny Walker whisky!

    I know you are collecting information about the languages used in the Brigade and look forward to hearing more about that in due course.

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