Royal Lochnagar Distillery

It is a confident man who uses his own name to market a product. “Take a peg of John Begg” went the slogan, referencing the man who created Royal Lochnagar Single Malt Scotch Whisky. An even smarter marketing move was to invite the new neighbours round for a dram – particularly shrewd as he had built his distillery next to Balmoral Castle in Deeside, and his neighbours were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. They repaid his hospitality with a Royal Warrant.

‘Lochnagar’ is not a loch but a mountain. At just 1,155 metres (3,789 feet) high it’s not much of a mountain, as mountains go, but it provides a stunning backdrop to Deeside, the home of Royal Lochnagar Single Malt Whisky in Scotland’s Highland whisky region.