Artist goes wild to capture the tippling tower of Scotland’s whisky distilleries

ARTIST Matthew Ellwood has just finished his most towering challenge yet – capturing all of Scotland’s whisky distilleries vertically.

Matthew has already used his talent to reimagine Britain’s towns and cities – including Glasgow and Edinburgh – as if their most famous buildings and landmarks were piled on top of each other.

To complete his trilogy of Scottish works, he recently spent three months camping across the country to capture our 127 distilleries.

“I’m thinking of calling this one The Wee Tower of Tipple,” he said.

Matthew has highlighted our whisky trail’s best-known and historic sights from the Borders, Lowlands, Speyside and Highlands and Islands – including the Ardbeg, Bowmore and Laphroaig distilleries in Islay and the famous Auchentoshan plant between Glasgow and Loch Lomond.

“I decided to camp around Scotland while as I was doing my sketches to save money,” he said. “I took my border collie Ellie with me for company.

“It was great fun but I had no idea how ferocious the midgies would be in the summer. At times I thought I was being eaten alive.

“And after visiting more than 120 distilleries, a lot of the mornings were spent nursing a hangover. But it was worth it,” said the Northumberland man.

“Getting all the buildings into one image was very challenging and the original finished work is on a huge piece of paper that is almost eight feet high.”