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Ballantine's Distillery
Dominating the Dumbarton skyline since the 1940s, much of Ballantine's Distillery is now gone - only the main tower remains. Standing in the shadow of Dumbarton Castle, perched high atop its craggy rock, the tower sits in splendid isolation amongst mounds of rubble - all that is left of a once thriving industry.
Determined to see the place before it succumbs to the demolition teams, I visited the former distillery. Even now, as the threat of destruction looms large on the horizon, still it is imposing.
Inside, silence abounds, broken only by the occasional flutter of the wings of a startled pigeon. Daylight streams in through the huge glassless windows, casting shadows beyond the wrought iron pillars which fill the space, ascending through each floor. Giant holes in each floor betray the former presence of massive pipes, no doubt used to convey the unfinished whisky around the sections of the distillery, but the giant vats and all other clues to the previous use of the building are gone.
The light makes the red brick of the tower vibrant. Flooding into the tower through the massive bays, the light brings alive the last vestiges of colour, creating shadow and contrast - and accentuating the emptiness of this great monolith.
In photographing Ballantine's Distillery, my intention was to capture something of the sheer scale of the tower itself and of the vastness of the space in its interior; and also to record how, even in its present state of dereliction and abandonment, still there is something entrancing about this building, in which splashes of colour stand in stark contrast to the grime of an industrial ruin.
You can see more images of the distillery in the Dereliction gallery.
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