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Glenury Royal
Glenury Royal is a former Highland region malt distillery that was located in Stonehaven on the east coast of Scotland. It was built in 1825 by Captain James Barclay and obtained its "Royal" suffix through his personal to King William IV.
The distillery was American-owned by National Distillers in the early 20th century after its was acquired by its Scotch division, Train & McIntyre, in 1938. It was then subsequently sold to the Distillers Company who shut it down in 1985 during its era of oversupply. It was then demolished and the site sold to developers.
The Distillers Company (DCL) assigned the license for Glenury Royal to the blender, John Gillon & Co, during its final decades in production and the company used its malt for its Gillon's and King William IV blends. It also sold some of it as single malt however, marketing a Glenury Royal brand via a sole 12-year-old expression in the 1970s and early 1980s. It was eventually discontinued following the merger of DCL with Arthur Bell & Sons.
The next official releases did not come until 1995 when United Distillers included it within its Rare Malts Selection range, with subsequent additions in 1997 and 1998. The first reintroduction of a dedicated Glenury Royal single malt brand followed in 2003 when a 50-year-old was bottled as part of the Diageo Special Releases for that year. It has made several appearances in subsequent instalments of the annual collection and has also been made available though the Diageo private cask programme, Casks of Distinction.
