A Four-Glass Commission: Routes and Summits

This set of four whisky glasses was commissioned to mark a series of completed routes across Britain’s landscape.

Each glass carries a distinct design, prepared to reflect a specific journey.

The Designs

• West Highland Way
  The route line, with key place names, wraps cleanly around the glass.
• Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge
  A continuous composition mapping the three peaks in a full wraparound layout.
• National Three Peaks
  Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, arranged as a single journey across the surface.
• Striding Edge
  A single-sided engraving, focusing on the ridge itself, held in a more contained composition.

Each piece was personalised with the dates the peaks were completed, integrated into the layout rather than added as an afterthought.

Preparation and Engraving

The designs required careful planning to balance detail with clarity.

While each glass represented a different route or challenge, the intention was to create a coordinated set rather than four unrelated engravings. Particular attention was given to how mountain forms, route lines and landmarks occupied the available space on each glass, allowing every piece to retain its own identity while remaining visually connected to the others.

In the wraparound designs, landscape elements were adapted to create a continuous composition around the circumference of the glass. Mountains and landmarks were arranged to flow naturally into one another, creating the impression of a single journey unfolding around the surface. Although the locations themselves may be separated by hundreds of miles, the engraving was prepared as a unified landscape rather than a geographical map.

Route lines, place names and terrain textures were adjusted for scale, ensuring they would engrave cleanly while remaining legible across curved glass. Each composition was prepared individually, then transferred to stencil and sandblasted to achieve a consistent etched depth.

Outcome

The completed set brings together four related designs, each distinct but unified in approach.

Presented in a satin-lined box, the set reads as a single commission rather than four separate pieces.

Although each glass references a different route, challenge or landscape, the collection was prepared to function as a cohesive whole, linking individual achievements within a shared visual language.