William Birnie in Glen Mhor malting floor

This image comes from the collection of Rodney Burtt, we're doing these in the order he catalogued and his original notes are:

'William Birnie is observing the scene of a redundant malting floor, accompanied by his loyal labrador and pipe!'

If you've been following our malting floor images, you'll be able to recognise this is a smaller floor than seen in an earlier image which could have been Glen Albyn. I find this a very symbolic and poignant image, from what we know of William (see our Quotes Section), he was a character and I wonder what he was thinking when this image was taken.

Rodney also uses the word redundant which could have just been a day off, or possibly no longer utilised due to the arrival of the Saladin technology. The upper floor of the maltings or lower floor, may have not been required following the installation of the mechanised maltings. And we know there was a later building added to the side of original maltings from our photographs. The answers are out there, but for now, let's enjoy this image.

My thanks to Alan for providing the image, his insight and to Rose for processing the original and giving it a new lease of life. This will be available in our Photograph Section.