A brother and sister with a crofting background have set up a craft distillery along the North Coast 500 route creating and selling spirits including gin and rum.

Iain Black, sister Jacqueline Black and their partners Eilidh Black and Stephen Wright, launched Ice and Fire Distillery earlier this year.

The move came after Mr Black was diagnosed and the family wanted to create venture he could help run.

With support from Business Gateway in Caithness, the family decided to set up a new business so Mr Black could work from home and they drew on the historical links the village of Latheronwheel has with spirit making to come up with the idea of a distillery.

The firm's drinks are now being stocked in hotels and shops in the region with plans to expand into global markets in future.

Jacqueline Black said: “Ice and Fire was launched as a result of Iain being diagnosed with Neuro Endocrine tumours around Christmas 2016.

"A year later, we made a decision as a family to launch a new venture that would fit around Iain’s needs rather than the other way round.

"Iain is our head distiller and uses local grains and home grown ingredients to create our gins and rum.

"We first sold our first two gins at the local County Show in July and the response was phenomenal.

"As a result, we had hotels and shops approach us for products and it reinforced our belief that we can turn our business in the back hills of Caithness into a global one.

"We have big aspirations for the company and we’ve bought a 25 acre croft and house to facilitate future expansion including building a bigger distillery, a restaurant and visitor centre."

Jennifer Irvine, of Business Gateway Caithness, said: “We provided specialist one-to-one start-up support advising Jacqueline and Ian with their business plan and looking into the gin and rum industry as a whole, which means the company not only launched successfully but is in a great position to grow.”