Distillery
Glenury Royal
Captain Robert Barclay Allardice was a celebrity long before he built a distillery in Scotland's Highland region. Famous for walking 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours to win a bet of 1,000 guineas. He turned that fame toward business in 1825. On the north bank of the River Cowie near Stonehaven, he built what became Glenury Royal. The distillery's start was rough. A fire destroyed the maltings within weeks of opening, and a workman was later scalded to death in the boiler. Barclay later petitioned his friend King William IV to let him add "Royal" to the name. The claim caused a public quarrel with the owner of Royal Brackla, who insisted he had received the same honour first. Glenury Royal was mothballed in 1985 and later demolished, leaving only the base of its chimney standing near Stonehaven today. Diageo released a 50 year old bottling in 2003, but only 498 bottles were made. Whisky from this Highland distillery is now genuinely hard to find.
