And what about the Midlands? Or islands like Arran, Mull, Orkney and Skye?
Well, these five area's were just the five 'main' regions - and not everybody agrees on the borders.
For example, some people treat all islands as a seperate region all by itself - with the exception of Islay of course.

If you're interested in more practical applications (like: what dram should I invest in next?) check out the Liquid Log or the mAlmanac.
If you want to delve a little deeper into the regions of Scotland, visit the pages that are dedicated to Speyside, the Highlands, the Lowlands, Islay or Campbeltown. Through the main Distillery Data page you can reach the various distillery profiles in this site section.
 

That being said, I have to admit that I didn't question
those old romantic stories for a long time - and I even
added a nifty Mega Malt Map to this site at one point.
It allowed visitors to locate neighboring distilleries
for a particular malt whisky they particularly liked.

Just like the satellite image at the right suggests, large
parts of Scotland are rough and rugged. Hardly perfect
conditions for agriculture, which makes it all the more
surprising that so much whisky is produced in such a
small part of the world. After the most recent 'boom'
in (malt) whisky, Scotland can't produce all the barley
that's required anymore, so this core ingredient has to
be shipped in from countries like France and Russia.
 
That fact that they still call the whisky that is produced
from French or Russian barley 'Scotch' whisky proves
that the stories about 'terroir' deserve re-evaluation.
The region where a whisky was produced isn't as big
a factor as it was in the past; with the knowledge
and technology of today a 'Speyside' distillery can
easily produce a peaty 'Islay' type malt whisky.

I've since come to believe that factors like age and wood management are
at least as important as 'regional' factors in Scotland, but these aspects
shouldn't be overlooked either. That's why I've added five pages with a
little more information about the five main whisky regions of Scotland
to MM. Each page contains an overview of all distilleries in that region;
 
1) Speyside - where by far most Scotch whisky distilleries are located.
2) Highlands - practically, the areas surrounding the Speyside heartland.
3) Lowlands - a historical region, south of Glasgow and Edinburgh.
4) Islay - a small, rugged island off the east coast of the mainland.
5) Campbeltown - area around the town on the Kintyre peninsula.

So, keep in mind that all this division is fairly arbitrary - and it doesn't always make perfect sense.
For example, the Speyside area is part of the Highlands, but since more than half of all distilleries in Scotland are
located there (including big names like Macallan and Glenlivet), it's usually treated as a separate region. There are
currently less than 100 active malt whisky distilleries left in Scotland, but more than fifty of those are located in
Speyside. There are hundreds of silent distilleries as well, many of which have been demolished.

However, if the distillery was still operational in the 1970's or 1980's there's a decent chance that there are still some old casks lying around in a warehouse somewhere. If there's a fair chance new (affordable) bottlings from a particular distillery will be released in the future, it's included on the main Distillery Data page.
 
I've tried to collect as much useful information as possible on these pages.
However, whether specific information is actually useful or not depends on one's prior knowledge.
Because most of the visitors of Malt Madness have a keen interest in malt whisky (at least I hope so ;-), I don't always explain stuff that is considered 'general knowledge' in circles of whisky anoraks. If you happen to be a relative novice in the whisky world, it might be wise to check out the Beginner's Guide to Single Malt Whisky first, before you venture deeper into the hidden depths of Malt Madness. Chapters of particular interest to novices in maltland would be those about the history of Scotch whisky, the vocabulary that is used in the whisky world and the important process of maturation in oak casks.

The Springbank distillery also produces the
more heavily peated 'Longrow' malts, as well
as a new spirit under the name 'Hazelburn'.
Once again, these are second-hand names
of silent distilleries in the Campbeltown area.