STORIES AROUND THE DISTILLERY

The Immortal Walter Scott

Wandering through the barley fields to the South West of the Glenmorangie Distillery, the rambler will come upon an unusual monument - otherwise rarely glimpsed from the road that runs past the distillery.

This is a large, vaguely ovoid boulder, nestling in what could be described as a miniature valley. Carved in white letters on the face is the unexpected inscription: "The Immortal Walter Scott. Ob.183".

The stone is the most northerly monument to the great writer who is more commonly celebrated as Scotland's National Writer in his home in Abbotsford, in the Borders. It was instigated at the same time as the Glenmorangie Distillery was being built by the factor of the local farm who also hailed from Abbotsford.

Workers from the distillery were "borrowed" during their dinner-hour to carve the inscription and even to this day, Glenmorangie apprentices pay an annual homage to Sir Walter by refreshing the inscription with a coat of white paint.

But how did the boulder get there in the first place? Visitors asking this question will be told that the valley was formed during the ice age and that a boulder is a chunk of glacial erratic left behind by the process.

At Glenmorangie, however, a quite different explanation is given.

The distillery is situated almost exactly mid-way between Portmahomack in the East and Struie Hill in the West. These, the story goes, were once the homes of two giants.

As a feat of strength, the two giants used to throw the enormous boulder across the twenty-five miles that separated them, catch it and then throw it back. Then, one day, the Struie giant got married.

The morning after the wedding, the boulder ended up in the field.

THE STORY OF GLENMORANGIE MALT WHISKY DISTILLING Introduction Chronology of Distilling The Early Days of Distilling Illicit Whisky Distilling STORIES AROUND THE DISTILLERY Introduction The Ancient Burgh The Immortal Walter Scott The White Lady GLENMORANGIE DISTILLERY Introduction Early Days at Glenmorangie Enmeshed in the local rural framework A comfortable little backwater Maltbarns into makeshift barracks New owners and the Roaring Twenties A return to older ways Progress has some advantages THE HISTORY OF THE AREA Introduction Earliest Times The Dark Ages Ross in the Middle Ages The Wars of Independence The Church of St Duthac at Tain The Reformation/Ross of Morangie

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