The Orkney Image Library
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Kevin sends this in and comments: 'I was told this photo was taken out the back of the Queens Hotel when they bottled their own beer. Anyone know this man?'
The same picture also shows up in the Tom Kent collection and is described as bottling at the Highland Park Distillery, so any clarification is gratefully received. I must admit it looks more like a beer bottle to me.
Date is an estimate.
Picture added on 08 October 2004
William Garrioch adds an authoritative correction to this picture- it is in fact his father William 'Bill' Garrioch pictured bottling beer bottles at the back of Kirkness and Gories on Broad Street in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The beer apparently came in bulk in barrels and was bottled on the premises.
Added by Steven Heddle on 23 March 2007
Sorry to have been a bit slow on this but the photograph was taken in Kirkness & Gorie's back yard. I still have the bottling contraption and mallet. My father, variously Patrick,Pat or in the family Peter, Gorie used the mallet, albeit with a rather rough new handle, as a mallet. The wooden box has cork in the bottom to protect the wearer in case of breakages.
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Added by Bruce Kirkness Gorie on 02 October 2013
Kirkwall
I don't believe it is a beer bottle. Crown caps existed by then and he is driving home a cork intended for a still (non-carbonated) product. The top of the bottle looks like a liquor bottle. I'd guess Tom Kent has it right.
PS. I'm passionate about two things... a career in the local beverage industry and my Orkney heritage.