A permanent tribute to the founder of a world famous Speyside distillery has been unveiled.
The life-sized bronze sculpture of William Grant will greet visitors to the Glenfiddich at Dufftown.
It was unveiled more than 130 years after the entrepreneur founded the distillery – with help from wife Elizabeth and their seven children – with a dream of creating the best dram in the valley.
Now Aberdeenshire artist Lois Carson has sculpted a depiction of Mr Grant in his Gordon Highlanders’ uniform and his wife to welcome tourists from across the world to the distillery’s visitor centre.
She said: “After more than a century, it’s wonderful that this couple still has a job to do – greeting the many visitors to experience the business they set up with their family.
“It’s been an incredible experience for me, involving many hours of research at the Gordon Highlanders Museum to make sure I was able to create an accurate representation of the uniform William would have worn.
“It was also important to me to keep the couple’s likeness and to depict their warm and welcoming persona.”
Mrs Carson, who is from Insch, participated in Glenfiddich’s renowned artists in residence programme in 2003 – where she soaked in the environment of the distillery to inspire her artwork.
The new statue was commissioned to highlight the whisky producer’s continued family heritage as part of William Grant and Sons and to celebrate the pioneering spirit of its founder Mr Grant, who was also a Major in the Gordon Highlanders’ volunteer force.
Preparation for the sculpture took more than a year before it was cast at the Black Isle Bronze foundry in Nairn.
Peter van Peborgh-Gooch, general manager of William Grant and Sons’ visitor centres, said: “On all our tours, one of our key messages is that we are still family run after 130 years by the fifth generation of the founding family.
“By having William and Elizabeth welcoming our visitors we are celebrating the fact that the company would not be the success story it is today without the family’s vision, determination and values – right back to when the first spirit was produced on Christmas Day in 1887.”
