The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Mountains of China home to whisky mystery
Missing link – developers near Shanghai uncover rock bearing name of Crieff distillery, but how did it get there?
What is the link between a Scottish missionary doctor, a resort in the mountains of China and the UK’s oldest whisky distillery?
That is the question being asked after construction workers in China uncovered a giant piece of rock engraved with the word Glenturret – the name of the famous whisky distillery in Crieff, Perthshire.
The discovery came during a recent excavation for a resort at Moganshan, a hilly vacation destination in China two hours from Shanghai. The developers of the resort know some of the property used to belong to Dr Duncan Main, a Scottish missionary doctor who dedicated 45 years of his life to working in China in the late 1800s and early 1900s. What they are puzzled about is the connection to Glenturret.
Staff at Glenturret Distillery are also baffled. That is why they are calling on the public to help them place the last pieces of an intriguing puzzle, one that gives a new twist to UK-China trade relations.
Grant Horsfield, founder of naked, which operates a luxury eco-resort in the area, said: “We know Dr Duncan Main, one of the most famous missionaries in China at the time, had a castle on the property and that it was used as a summer retreat by him and his hospital staff. It was built in 1910 as a sanitorium and known simply as #1 Moganshan.
“We also know it passed into the hands of the government of Zhejiang for a short time during China’s nationalisation and then was handed back to Dr Main’s son, S. Duncan Main. It was then sold to the Jiangnan Auto Company and opened as the Green Shade Inn. However, it was not well maintained and was torn down in the 1960s.”
Mr Horsfield recently got in touch with the distillery, after he and his workers found the name engraved in bold letters into a piece of rock.
Stuart Cassells, general manager of Glenturret Distillery, said: “At first it might seem not seem like a surprise that a Scottish missionary doctor would be linked to a Scottish whisky distillery. But the fact is that Dr Duncan Main was born and brought up in Ayrshire and was educated in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
“We have yet to find a link between Dr Main and our own region of Crieff, which is some distance away, at the foot of the Scottish Highlands.
“We’re wondering if, perhaps, Dr Main was such a fan of his native drink that he was one of the first importers of Glenturret whisky to China. Another possibility is that the rock has uncovered a link not to Glenturret Distillery but to a British steamship called Glenturret that we also know existed.
“What is clear is that Glenturret made its mark, literally, halfway around the world.”
What is clear is that Glenturret made its mark, literally, halfway around the world