Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Thurso lifeboat station tastes success from sale of rare whisky bottle

Michael Martin and Markus Knigge, two of the shareholders who sold the rare bottle
Michael Martin and Markus Knigge, two of the shareholders who sold the rare bottle

The owners of a rare whisky distilled in Caithness have donated the proceeds of its sale at auction to the Thurso lifeboat.

Eight whisky enthusiasts from across Europe bought a cask from the Wolfburn Distillery in Thurso in 2013.

They decided to donate the outcome of the auction earlier last month to the local RNLI station.

While the bottle itself made £190, auction platform whiskyauction.com added an additional 1,000 Euros after being told the profit was going to the RNLI – taking the total to £1,053.

The owners stated: “Volunteers risk their own lives to save people in distress at sea.”

Michael Martin and Markus Knigge, two of the shareholders who hail from Germany, said: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Wolfburn staff.

“Whiskyauction.com also supports the campaign with an additional donation. It was a good opportunity for Wolfburn fans to get a rare bottle cask strength Wolfburn and support the brave people from RNLI who risk their lives at sea.”

The bottle was a privately-owned Wolfburn Quarter Cask – a 120-litre refill Bourbon Quarter Cask with the number 176.

It was filled in 2013 and was bottled at the end of 2020, making it one of the oldest Wolfburn expressions currently available.

Thurso RNLI spokesman Ron Gunn said: “We are always extremely grateful of any donations and they can come from a variety of contributors.

“I think this is the first time we have received a donation via the sale of a bottle of rare whisky from our local Wolfburn distillery. The crew would like to thank everyone concerned for this kind donation.”

It was in 1821 that William Smith founded a distillery on the outskirts of Thurso and named it Wolfburn after the watercourse it drew from.

It stopped producing later in the century and only reopened at a new building in 2013, just a short walk along the burn from the old site towards the sea.

The Wolfburn logo was taken from a drawing by Conrad Gessner, the 16th-century linguist and zoologist, and appears in his work The History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents.

In Gessner’s day the wolf was a common sight in the far north of Scotland and on the coast it was said to have a supernatural relative: the sea-wolf.

The sea-wolf is also said to bring good luck to all those fortunate enough to see it.