The Glenturret

“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.” – David Yarrow