Elgin is the main town of Moray, a prosperous market town on the river Lossie with a handsome high street and a cathedral ruin that once ranked among the finest in Scotland. Burned by the Wolf of Badenoch in 1390, Elgin Cathedral — the "Lantern of the North" — still impresses: its twin towers visible from a good distance and its carved stonework still sharp after seven centuries.
The town sits at the heart of Speyside, the valley that holds more malt whisky distilleries per square mile than anywhere on earth. Gordon & MacPhail, one of the world's great whisky shops, has been on South Street since 1895. Glen Moray Distillery is a 10-minute walk from the town centre. The Speyside Whisky Trail puts Glenfiddich, The Macallan, and dozens of others within an hour's drive.
Johnstons of Elgin has been weaving cashmere on the banks of the Lossie since 1797. Elgin Museum, the oldest independent museum in Scotland, holds a fine collection of Pictish stones and Permian fossils. Pluscarden Abbey, a few miles southwest, is one of only two medieval monasteries in Britain still occupied by monks — and the only one where the monks returned to a ruin and rebuilt it themselves.