Approaching Glen Mhor Distillery 1974


This is the classic perspective for Glen Mhor and comes again from the Carnmore archives, with thanks to Professor Hume. This is wrongly filed under Glen Albyn, when it is clearly Glen Mhor across the road.

We have the warehousing on the left that backs onto the football ground. At the far end, we can see the ramp that leads up to the largest (and original) warehouse, that appears in the 1972 photograph kindly provided by the Diageo Archives. On the right, we can see the original maltings, and its ugly-modern extension with more production buildings in the background.

What's most interesting about this photograph other than it shows no external changes under the DCL ownership, is the cask that's sitting under the ramp. This looks ready to pour drams and could potentially take us back to the practice of dramming, where distillery workers were given whisky throughout their daily chores. In some cases, quite a considerable amount of cask-strength whisky. 


This practice varied across the industry, it's possible that our research will highlight any issues around the practice at Glen Mhor and when it came to an end. For most distilleries in Scotland, the 1970s was the last decade for its practice. Nowadays, workers are given a monthly allowance (normally a bottle) and nothing is consumed on-site. This change is lamented by many old hands that I've spoken to over the years.

Still, a nice find that shows the validity in thinking outside of just the distillery name when searching for materials. This will be filed into our growing photograph section

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