There are people who make an event memorable without ever stepping into the spotlight. Think of the caterer behind that owambe everyone is still talking about, or the auntie whose jollof rice has people asking for the recipe long after the party ends. In whisky, a similar story is unfolding on a stretch of Scottish moorland called Hobbister Moor. It may not appear on the bottle, but what grows there helps shape the character of Highland Park.
Hobbister Moor sits on Orkney, a group of islands off Scotland’s northern coast where heather grows across the open landscape. Beneath the vegetation lies peat, formed over thousands of years from accumulated plant material. Highland Park sources its peat from this area and burns it in traditional kilns to smoke malted barley, a step in whisky production that influences the aromas of the finished spirit.
Here is the interesting part: not all peat produces the same character. The plant material that contributes to its formation influences the qualities of the smoke, which helps explain why smoky whiskies can differ so much. Highland Park attributes the floral aromas and subtle, aromatic smoke in its whisky to Orkney’s heathered peat. Rather than letting smoke dominate the experience, the distillery uses it as one element in a wider flavour profile.
It is a bit like suya. The meat matters, of course, but the heat, the seasoning and what happens over the fire all contribute to the result. Change an important part of that process and you change what ends up on the plate. Whisky production is more complex, but the principle is similar: the material used to smoke the barley can influence the character that develops later.
For Highland Park, the connection to Hobbister Moor is also a reminder that ingredients come from somewhere, and that place has its own needs. The moor is a natural habitat for wildlife, including hen harriers and curlews. Its peatland also forms part of an ecosystem that requires careful management, particularly because peat takes a very long time to form.
The distillery says it has reduced the amount of peat it extracts from the moor by improving its kilning process. It has also reported restoration work, including trials involving returfing and water-retention measures, alongside collaboration with environmental partners such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. These efforts matter because a production tradition that depends on a natural resource also has a responsibility to consider how that resource is managed.
It is easy to focus on the age printed on a whisky bottle, the cask that held it or the tasting notes offered alongside it. But the story can begin much earlier, in the plants growing on a stretch of land most drinkers may never visit. In Highland Park’s case, heathered peat from Hobbister Moor helps give the smoke its distinctive character, linking the finished whisky to a very specific corner of Orkney.
So the next time you hear someone describe a whisky as smoky, there is a more interesting question to ask: what kind of smoke, and where did it begin? For Highland Park, the answer starts with heather growing above the peat of a Scottish moor.
