Towser: The Distillery Cat Who Became a Record Holder

At Glenturret Distillery near Crieff, a female tortoiseshell cat turned the everyday business of catching mice into a world record. Towser holds the Guinness World Records title “Greatest mouser”, with an estimated lifetime tally of 28,899 mice. Guinness explains that the total was calculated from several days of observation, extended across her life.[1][2]

In short

• Towser died aged 23, shortly before her twenty fourth birthday.[1][2]
• The tale that she received whisky in her milk is a legend, not an established explanation of her life or record.[2][3][4]
• Guinness says later distillery cats were kept mainly as visitor attractions after changes to malting and hygiene.[2]

A working cat with an extraordinary record

Towser spent her whole life at Glenturret. Long-haired, she became the subject of a record that still appears on the Guinness World Records website. The entry calls her “the most prolific mouser”; a later Guinness article describes her as having caught more mice than any other cat in recorded history.[1][2][3]

Behind the extraordinary tally was an ordinary working job. Barley drew rodents to distilleries, and cats helped keep them under control. Towser belongs to that practical history as much as to the distillery’s visitor appeal: her distinction was to turn an ordinary job into an extraordinary recorded claim.[2][4]

Story box

How Towser’s mouse total was calculated

The precision of 28,899 suggests a remarkably thorough ledger. The method was different: Guinness’s later account describes observation over several days, with the result extended across Towser’s lifetime.[2]

The Courier and the Press and Journal describe Guinness adjudicators watching her for a few days and applying a statistical technique. Those accounts support the broad explanation of the estimate, rather than a lifelong register of individual catches.[3][4]

The published dates offer a useful arithmetic check. Across approximately 8,735 days between her recorded birth and death, 28,899 works out at about 3.3 mice a day. That fits Guinness’s description of “more than three a day”, although the arithmetic checks the relationship between the dates and total, not the catches themselves.[1][2]

For this officially recognised record, the exact observation dates, the adjudicator’s identity and the calculation method remain unresolved in the available accounts.

Record verdict

Why distilleries needed mousers

Barley brought the rodents. As the Press and Journal explains, distilleries kept cats because grain attracted mice and rats, particularly around floor maltings, where it was spread out and turned by hand.[4]

That made a good mouser a useful part of distillery life. Towser was not simply a cat attached to a whisky name: she lived at a working distillery where grain, malting and pest control were closely connected.[1][4]

Changes in production eventually changed the cats’ role. Guinness says floor malting had nearly disappeared by 1987, while stricter hygiene requirements made traditional mousers redundant. Later distillery cats were kept mainly as visitor attractions. The Courier likewise reports that Glenturret’s later cats had much less mousing to do once the distillery stopped malting barley on site.[2][3]

The method has not vanished altogether. In 2020, the Press and Journal named The Balvenie and Highland Park among the few distilleries still using floor maltings.[4]

Was Towser 23 or 24?

Guinness records Towser’s birth as 21 April 1963 and her death as 20 March 1987; its explanatory article gives her age as 23.[1][2]

The figure of 24 has its own place in the story. Local reporting rounds her age to 24, while The Scotch Whisky Experience describes her statue as commemorating “her 24 years of service”. Those expressions account for the two numbers in circulation. The precise life dates give her 23 completed years.[3][4][5]

She was also female, not a tom, despite the occasional misconception. Guinness identifies Towser as a female tortoiseshell.[1][2]

The dram in the milk: a legend, not an explanation

A “tiny wee dram” in her milk each evening is the best-known embellishment to Towser’s story. Local reporting says the distillery neither confirmed nor denied the tale; Guinness repeats it as “reportedly”. The story remains a legend, not an established explanation for her long life or her mousing record.[2][3][4]

Distillery water has also been credited with her longevity. The Courier records that attribution, but no evidence establishes it as the explanation.[3]

Legend verdict

Neither tale should be treated as advice to give alcohol to an animal.

The cats who followed Towser

Amber, Towser’s first successor, became known for almost the opposite achievement: reporting says she never killed a mouse.[3][4]

The Courier reported that, as of 2001, Amber had gone 14 years without catching her first mouse. Later accounts say her one catch was released alive. The earliest source of that account is not established in the supplied source sheet.[3][4]

Other cats followed, each with a place in Glenturret’s published history:

The Press and Journal reports that Glen fell ill and was put to sleep within weeks, and that Glen II was added. This is the historical succession recorded in those accounts, rather than a list of the cats living at Glenturret today.[4]

The wider distillery world has its own feline stories. According to the Press and Journal, Passport arrived at Glen Keith in a cask shipment from Kentucky in 1993, later moving to Strathisla. The paper also describes Elvis at Jura, and Vesper and Friar John Claw at Lindores Abbey.[4]

Remembering Towser

Towser’s memorial is cast in bronze at the distillery. Her paw prints also appeared on Fairlie’s Light Highland Liqueur bottles, as Guinness records. Between the statue and the packaging, her presence reached well beyond the record entry.[2][4]

The 2017 anniversary cask gave that remembrance another purpose, linking her name to support for the Snow Leopard Trust. She also received a tribute from Emmerdale actors Chris Chittell and Patrick Mower during their 2005 visit, according to The Courier.[3][4][5]

Glenturret’s age: disputed

Glenturret’s producer calls it “Scotland’s Oldest Working Distillery”, citing a 1763 rental document of Sir Patrick Murray of Ochtertyre that refers to “Thurot Distillery”. A Guinness article gives an earlier date, 1717, when it says the distillery operated illegally.[2][6]

The accounts present different dates, and the supplied sources quote no primary record for the 1717 claim. The producer’s account also records two later changes of name: Thomas MacInnes renamed it The Hosh Distillery in 1814, and the Glenturret name was introduced in 1873.[6]

Where to go next

• Whisky Records: Largest Bottles and Other Verified Firsts: explore other records and the evidence behind their titles.
• The Oldest Whisky Distilleries: Claims and Evidence: distinguish competing claims by the historical test being used.
• Whisky Trivia: 50 Sourced Facts: continue with shorter, sourced whisky curiosities.

Sources

1. Guinness World Records. Greatest mouser. Undated record entry, checked November 2026. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/greatest-mouser
2. Guinness World Records, S. Atwal. How one drunk Scottish cat killed nearly 29,000 mice to break record. 16 March 2023. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2023/3/how-one-drunk-scottish-cat-killed-nearly-29-000-mice-to-break-record-741454
3. The Courier, S. Macaulay. International Cat Day: Celebrating the unbeatable Towser of Glenturret Distillery. 8 August 2022. https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/past-times/3570025/international-cat-day-towser-glenturret-distillery/
4. Press and Journal, G. Ritchie. The moggies which keep Scotland's distilleries mouse-free. 4 August 2020. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/past-times/2386078/the-moggies-which-keep-scotlands-distilleries-mouse-free
5. The Scotch Whisky Experience. The distillery cat. Undated trade account, checked November 2026. https://www.scotchwhiskyexperience.co.uk/the-distillery-cat/
6. The Glenturret. About Us. Producer’s account, checked November 2026. https://theglenturret.com/pages/about-us

This desk-researched article uses the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing Guinness’s record and explanation from newspaper reporting, trade accounts and legends.

Last checked: November 2026