Club 1745 Drambuie Pursuit Scotch Whisky

The 2009 Pursuit will welcome six American teams to the Scottish Highlands to shoot, climb, race and revel in Scottish lore.  All bets are off as everyone from a husband and wife team to hard-nosed New Yorkers fight for bragging rights, and the chance to bring the winning title home to the United States for the second year in a row.

Last year’s winning team, Current TV, included a native Scotsman and three American smokejumpers – all self-proclaimed “tough guys.” The rough terrain and celebratory drams of Drambuie did little to squelch their enthusiasm as they crossed the finish line sweaty, fatigued and victorious.

This year’s teams span the country and include a celebrity team, Team Seann, led by Seann Wiliam Scott, best known for his roles in the “American Pie” film series. Other teams competing in the Pursuit are Team Versus, Team Sirius/XM, Team Men’s Journal, Team Details and the aptly-named ‘Buie Boys.

The unforgiving landscape of the Scottish Highlands does not coddle the faint of heart. Pursuit competitors tracing Bonnie Prince Charlie’s historic footsteps need equal shares of fortitude and luck to emerge victorious.

The competition kicks off with an archery competition at Eilean Donan Castle, a paragon of Scottish heritage and beauty overseeing the intersection of three great sea lochs. On day two, competitors advance to the shores of Kyleakin on the Isle of Skye for the Zap Cat Race. Kyleakin, known as the Gateway to Skye, is connected to the Scottish mainland and more specifically, Kyle of Lochalsh, by the Skye Bridge. The Scottish term, “Kyle,” refers to the narrow straits of water that border the villages.

Once competitors complete the Zap Cat Race, they return to Eilean Donan Castle to confront a substantial obstacle, the craggy peaks of Boc Beag. Pursuit-goers must mountain bike up the hill top before first ascending, and then descending the peak on foot. From Bog Beag, the Pursuit traces Bonnie Prince Charlie’s journey to the River Garry for the white water rafting competition. During his retreat following the Battle of Culloden, the Prince stayed in Invergarry Castle, and with the help of a fishing net, caught two salmon from the river to sustain him on his flight from the English.

After getting their feet wet in the river, contestants encounter 3 kilometers of narrow trails and forest roads that weave their way through the North Shore. The trails have been forged from the wilderness by thousands of footsteps over the years, but to complicate matters, Pursuit competitors navigate the forest roads on mountain bikes.

As the contestants near the finish line and Inverness, they face one final challenge before racing through the heart of the city. Just outside of Inverness, the lush green countryside gives way to sandy, hilly terrain that houses a quarry, the site of the Pursuit’s buggy race. The two-seater buggies bounce and jar the weary competitors as they  negotiate the harsh landscape, but bruises are afterthoughts as the participants paddle frantically down the River Ness to the finish line in historic Inverness.

Last year’s Pursuit had a little bit of everything … action, adventure and really, really great scenery. Heather Vandeven, a Penthouse Pet of the Year in 2007, led Team Penthouse to a respectable finish in the 2008 Pursuit. Vandeven eschewed her glamorous persona as she got down and dirty mountain biking, hiking and fighting her way through the Scottish Highlands.

Team ‘Current TV’ Keeps the Spirit Alive in 2008

Smokejumping, Modern-Day Rebels take Victory in Extreme Adventure

INVERNESS, Scotland (May 2, 2008) /PRNewswire/ – A native Scotsman and three smokejumpers who fight forest fires in the American West emerged victorious in the Drambuie Pursuit Sunday. This was the third annual Drambuie Pursuit, but the first allowing Americans to compete.

The 10-stage adventure race across the Scottish highlands pitted 10, four-person teams against one another in events as diverse as white-water rafting, mountain biking, buggy racing and archery. Such a feat proved attainable for Steve Stroud, Brian Cresto and Alex Abols, of Boise, Idaho, who are accustomed to wielding chain saws and shovels for 16 hours a day during fire season.

The men applied to join the Drambuie Pursuit and were paired with ‘Current TV’ personality Scott Logan, a Scot now living in Southern California. He was determined not to be the weak link among his teammates, especially on his home soil.

“Back home, people call me ‘True Braveheart,” Logan said. “I always say to myself, it’s really nice, because all these friends of mine I work with, it’s a nice quote, to be called a true Braveheart. I feel like today I proved that.”

Logan’s sentiment was appropriate, given the history of Drambuie. The drink descended from a formula by the personal apothecary of Charles Edward Stuart, better known to Scots as Bonnie Prince Charlie. After the Prince’s rebel army was routed by the English-led government forces at the Battle of Culloden, he fled across the country for several months with a bounty on his head.

Legend has it he blended spices with Scotch Whiskey to revive himself on his flight and bestowed the recipe on a loyal clansman in gratitude for safe harbor before he fled to France. The prized elixir, handed down over generations, still remains a secret to all but the MacKinnon family.

Team ‘Current TV’ distinguished itself by winning the first two events – the archery round and a land-sea sprint in Zapcat boats – and further established itself as the team to catch midway through the day by beating the other nine teams up an alternately muddy and loamy mountainside.

Naturally, if there was any activity in which the firefighters excelled, it would be dashing up a remote mountain.

“We’re used to this from our work, gravity’s the same,” Cresto said. “It’s just wetter.”

Among the teams they beat were a foursome led by film and television actor Jerry O’Connell and another anchored by 2007 Penthouse Pet of the Year, Heather Vandeven.

For more information on the Drambuie Pursuit, or to apply for a chance to relive the legend of Bonnie Prince Charlie in the 2009 race, visit www.pursuitof1745.com.

The name Eilean Donan, or island of Donan, is most probably named after the 6th century Irish Saint, Bishop Donan who came to Scotland around 580 AD. There are several churches dedicated to Donan in the area, and it is likely that he formed a small cell, or community on the island during the late 7th century.

The first fortified structure was not built on the island until the early 13th century as a defensive measure, protecting the lands of Kintail against the Vikings who raided, settled and controlled much of the North of Scotland and the Western Isles between 800 and 1266. From the mid 13th century, this area was the quite separate “Sea Kingdom” of the Lord of the Isles where the sea was the main highway and the power of feuding clan chiefs was counted by the number of men and galleys or “birlinns” at their disposal. Eilean Donan offered the perfect defensive position.

Over the centuries, the castle itself has expanded and contracted in size. The medieval castle was probably the largest, with towers and a curtain wall that encompassed nearly the entire island. The main keep stood on the islands highest point. Around the end of the 14th century, the area of the castle was reduced to about a fifth of its original size, and although the reason is unclear, it probably relates to the number of men required to defend the structure. By the 16th century, a hornwork was added to the east wall to offer a firing platform for the newly introduced cannons.

Eilean Donan also played a role in the Jacobite risings of the 17th and 18th centuries, which ultimately culminated in the castles destruction.

In 1719, the castle was garrisoned by 46 Spanish soldiers who were supporting the Jacobites. They had established a magazine of gunpowder and were awaiting the delivery of weapons and cannon from Spain. The English Government caught wind of the intended uprising and sent three heavily armed frigates, The Flamborough, The Worcester, and The Enterprise, to quell matters. The bombardment of the castle lasted three days, though met with limited success due to the enormity of the castle walls, which in some places are up to 14 feet thick. Finally, Captain Herdman of The Enterprise sent his men ashore and over-whelmed the Spanish defenders. Following the surrender, the government troops discovered the magazine of 343 barrels of gunpowder which was then used to blow up what had remained from the bombardment.

For the best part of 200 years, the stark ruins of Eilean Donan lay neglected, abandoned and open to the elements, until Lt Colonel John Macrae-Gilstrap bought the island in 1911. Along with his Clerk of Works, Farquar Macrae, he dedicated the next 20 years of his life to the reconstruction of Eilean Donan, restoring her to her former glory. The castle was rebuilt according to the surviving ground plan of earlier phases and was formally completed in July of 1932.