Glenury Royal (a.k.a. Glenury) was founded by Robert
Barclay in 1825 near Stonehaven, south of Aberdeen.
That makes it an eastern Highland distillery, just like its
'coastal' neighbours Glenesk, Lochside and North Port.
Captain Robert Barclay was a Member of Parliament and
he managed to get permission by King William IV to put
the world "Royal" in front of the name of the distillery.
 
The Glenury Royal distillery takes its name from the glen
that runs through the Ury district. Incidentally, Captain
Robert Barclay was also Laird of the Ury district. In fact,
he was a multi-talented man. For example, he was the
first man (on record) to run 1000 miles in 1000 hours.
(I'm guessing he took breaks for eating and drinking.)

1) Apart from being a politician, Captain Robert Barclay was also an athlete and marathon runner.
In 1809 he was also the first man to run 1000 miles within 1000 hours. For this achievement he was later included in the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

2) Official and semi-official releases from Glenury Royal include a 23yo 1971/1995 and 29yo 1970/1999 bottling in the UD Rare Malts series. In 2003 Diageo released a 50yo official bottling; only 498 bottles were produced. A limited release of a 36yo bottling (ABV 51,2%) was released in 2005 - the size of this batch was 2100 bottles. 

3) More trivia about Glenury Royal will be added later...
 

Glenury Royal 26yo 1975/2002 (52.6%, Signatory, C#5240, bottle 91/192)
Nose: Classic. Malty. Hint of lime? Light and accessible, but it has substance. Hint of something grassy?
Taste: Malty with citrussy overtones as well. Gooseberries. Unique texture; smooth with something 'lumpy'.
Score: 80 points - not especially impressive for a malt whisky this old.

Glenury 30yo 1973/2003 (57.5%, Blackadder, Cask #6861)
Nose: Wonderful! Rich & sherried. Surprisingly fresh fruity notes grow dusty quickly. Sweet. Subtle wood.
Taste: Very drinkable at cask strength. Sweet and smooth. Liquorice. Quickly fading finish.
Score: 89 points - fabulous stuff; my first indication that this was an excellent disstillery.

Glenury Royal 30yo 1973/2003 (50.7%, Blackadder Raw Cask, Cask #6861)
Nose: Very fruity start. Faintest hint of something medicinal. Quite complex, but you have to work at it.
Taste: Smooth but a little nondescript at cask strength. Menthos? Again there seems to be a trace of peat.
Score: 88 points - here's another old malt that needs time. I initially had it around 83 but it grows bolder.

Glenury Royal 12yo (40%, G&M Licensed, John Gillon & Company, Btl. Early 1980's, 5cl)
Nose: Ah! Sweet & malty start. Subtle 'veggy' notes emerge, but they are very well integrated with the sweetness. Metallic. Not the sort of profile I instinctively like, but a surprising complexity.
Taste: Oy! Dusty. Weird start... Even a hint of something medicinal? Vaguely minty and metallic as well.
Score: 80 points - maybe just a tad oxidised? Still very interesting - almost enough to make it to 80 points.
In fact, after some 10 minutes in the glass it made the jump to 80. Yes, I would recommend this.

Glenury Royal 1964/1977 (80 Proof, Cadenhead's Dumpy - 12yo age statement?)
Nose: Sweet fruits. Not very expressive at first, but grows more austere. Metallic. Ink. Oatmeal. Dead fish?
Taste: A strong peaty foundation - a nice surprise! Excellent mouth feel, but falls apart a bit after ten minutes.
Score: 87 points - but Serge said it reminded him of old Clynelish and scored it higher. His right to be wrong ;-)

Glenury Royal 1966/1979 (46%, Cadenhead's 'Dumpy')
Nose: Starts sweet, but grows spicier quickly. Lemon drops. Rubber. Pilchards. The blue pearly liquorice all sorts.
Taste: Peaty, just like the 1964. Salty. Dry. Phenolic. Hot and dry in the finish. Slightly tannic. All in all: lovely.
Score: 88 points - chalk one more up for the veterans: a beautiful old / young malt whisky...

Glenury Royal 23yo 1971/1995 (61.3%, UDRM)
Nose: Not very expressive at first. Quite delicate with some faint organics. Developing spices. Perfume.
Taste: Full, big and spicy. This is my kind of profile. Just like the nose, it improves further over time.
Score: 88 points - oh boy, why did they close down this 'four star' distillery?
 

These were not all the (official and independent) expressions of Glenury Royal whisky I've tried over the years.
My Track Record used to contain a complete overview of all the single malts I've tried, but when I passed the 2000 malts mark (and the complete whisky list wouldn't fit on two separate HTML pages anymore) I gave up. My Liquid Log still contains my tasting notes on most single malts I've sampled and scored, though. You can find a specific expression through the search box at the top of each distillery profile. The mAlmanac now contains (purely personal) selections of some of the best single malts and the worst whiskies I've tried so far - as well as the ones with the highest 'Bang-For-Your-Buck' value. But those tasting notes and scores only reflect my own, purely personal opinions.
 
On Serge's distillery profile on Whiskyfun you can find another perspective on the whisky made at this distillery. Check out the Malt Maniacs Monitor on Malt Maniacs for my scores on all expressions I've tried so far - and those of almost all the other certified malt maniacs as well. The Malt Maniacs Matrix contains a few thousand single malts that were sampled and scored by at least four different malt maniacs, so you can compare our individual opinions.
 
 

Glenury Royal had a fairly unfortunate start. On April 20th 1825 (a few weeks after production started), a fire destroyed the kiln, the malting floors, parts of the grain loft and considerable stocks of barley. Just two weeks later fate struck again; local distillery worker James Clark fell into the boiler and didn't come out alive. This was sort of an occupational hazard for distillery staff at the time - James wasn't the first or the last distillery worker to suffer from a 'freak distillation accident'.

Production at Glenuray Royal distillery ceased during the
second world war, but in 1953 Distillers Company Limited
(DCL, one of the predecessors of Diageo) bought ASD and
transferred it to SMD (Scottish Malt Distillers).
 
In 1965 (some say 1966) the distillery was completely
refurbished and the number of stills was doubled, from
two to four. The maltings of Glenury Royal were closed
three years later, in 1968. The distillery kept producing
malt whisky for almost two more decades, but eventually
it was mothballed by DCL on May 31th, 1985.
 
In 1992 the owners decided to cease the malt whisky
production at Glenury Royal for good. The buildings of the
distillery were sold in 1993 to a real estate company who
turned part of these buildings into apartments. The result
of the sale is that Glenury Royal is definitively history.

Robert Barclay himself passed away relatively peacefully in 1854 and the Glenury Royal distillery was put up for auction circa three years later. In 1857 or 1858 it was acquired by William Richie from Glasgow. Ownership of Glenury Royal remained in the Richie family until 1928 (when production ceased) and perhaps even 1936. Details on this sale are a tad vague because the seller wasn't a member of the Richie family, but Lord Stonehaven. The Richie family probably leased the Glenury Royal distillery from the lord at this point.
 
The buyer who bought the distillery was the Glenury Distillery Company which was under the control of one Joseph William Hobbs. Lord Stonehaven sold Glenury Royal distillery in 1936 to Hobbs' company for 7,500 GBP. Just two years later the distillery was sold on to another company from Hobbs; ASD (Associated Scottish Distillers). Interestingly enough, within just two years the price had more than doubled to £18,500. The significant difference in price wasn't warranted by a renovation of Glenury Royal or new distillery equipment, so it would seem that the dealings of Hobbs were on the shady side of the spectrum. Glenury Royal distillery changed hands again soon afterwards and was sold to American National Distillers in 1940.