The whisky industry directly employs
11,000 in Scotland and carries great
economic and historical value to the
country. Every year, 1 billion bottles of
whisky are exported and distilleries with
heritage and production capacity have
become hot assets in the investment
world. Right now, there are 20 million
casks of whisky maturing in Scotland:
that’s around 4 per living person in the
country. 

I was recently given the chance to
photograph Scotland’s oldest working
distillery - The Glenturret in Perthshire
- which dates to 1763. Located on the
banks of the River Turret, it has a
picture-perfect charm that eludes many
working distilleries in 2024. Furthermore,
looking at old museum pictures, not
much has changed in the facade and the
courtyard over the last 120 years and
the new owners were keen to celebrate
this constancy. They wanted a love
letter to its celebrated past and I totally
understood. 

On our scouting visit up to Glenturret, we
were drawn to the timeless nature of the
buildings, but equally, there were some
signs of modernity and my sense was that
the best way to hide them was to work
after a snowfall. Despite there being less
snow in Scotland now than in the days of
my childhood, it still snows occasionally
around Crieff.
This was a team effort and such is the
local pride in the distillery, that attracting
locals to work on the shoot was as easy
as sampling their products when we were
wrapped.