Holyrood Distillery: Edinburgh's First New Distillery in a Century

Edinburgh blends and bottles enormous amounts of whisky, but for the better part of a century the city did not distil any of it. Holyrood changed that in 2019, when it opened as the first new distillery built in Edinburgh in roughly a hundred years. It did so in an unusual building: a former railway goods shed at St Leonard's, a few hundred metres from Arthur's Seat, converted rather than built from scratch.

Holyrood at a glance

History of Holyrood

Rob and Kelly Carpenter, who had earlier founded a Scotch Malt Whisky Society branch in Canada, teamed up with David Robertson, a whisky industry veteran from Macallan, to found what they first registered as John Fergus & Co in 2015. The council approved their bid to lease St Leonard's Engine Shed, a former railway goods building near Holyrood Park, that same year, and planning permission followed in 2016. Construction began in 2018, funded by £5.8 million from the Scottish National Investment Bank alongside private investors, and the site opened for public tours in 2019. Production and the visitor experience arrived together from day one, a very different model from most historic distilleries.

The distillery released its first single malt, Arrival, in October 2023. They named it for the building's past as a railway shed and shaped the bottle to look like a beer bottle rather than a conventional whisky one. A rye whisky, RyeLaw, had already launched in April 2023, distilled in a traditional pot still rather than the column stills more often used for rye elsewhere. Holyrood won Distiller of the Year at the 2025 World Whiskies Awards, fast recognition for a distillery only a few years into releasing spirit under its own name.

How Holyrood makes its whisky

Holyrood has built its identity around experimentation rather than Lowland convention. Its Strong Waters new-make series, launched in 2022, trialled heirloom barley varieties including Golden Promise and Chevalier alongside international yeast strains, among them a sake yeast and a Mexican lager yeast, producing new-make spirit with flavours well outside the usual Scotch range. The Founding series that followed, Embra (peated), Ambir (built from specialty malts) and Pitch (specialty yeast), carried that approach into aged releases. The distillery also makes Height of Arrows gin, built around juniper as its only core botanical alongside Isle of Skye sea salt and beeswax.

Holyrood and independent bottlers

Holyrood only began releasing aged single malt in 2023, so there is almost no independent-bottler market for it yet. Stock is young and limited. Third-party availability will take years to develop, following the same pattern as every other recently founded Scotch distillery before a secondary market has had time to form.

Holyrood and The Single Cask

We do hold Holyrood casks. They are maturing in our care now, and we have not bottled one yet, because we would rather wait until the spirit is ready than release it early for the sake of having a new Edinburgh name on the shelf. When we do bottle, it will be from a cask we own outright, and we will say so here. If you would like to know when that happens, get in touch and we will keep you posted. In the meantime, for a Lowland single cask you can buy today, our Glasgow (Peated) 6 Year Old (cask 18/470) is the closest comparison: a modern Lowland distillery that works with peat and experimental approaches rather than the lighter, classically Lowland style you might expect.

Plan a bottling inspired by Holyrood

Holyrood built a working distillery and a visitor attraction in the same building, in the same year, which shows there is more than one way to answer the question of what to do with a cask of whisky once it exists. If you want a more direct answer for a cask that is already maturing, start with our whisky casks available page, or read about buying a whisky cask and the four steps to bottling your own whisky. For something under your own name, our private label whisky service covers that end to end. For more on Lowland and newer Scotch distilleries, see our guides to Glasgow Distillery and Annandale.

We hold a wide range of casks to sell to independent bottlers and private customers, drawn from many different distilleries, finished in a variety of wood types from sherry and port casks to bourbon and rum, with real differences in yeast and production style from one distillery to the next. If you are an independent bottler looking for stock, or you have always wanted a cask of your own, talk to us about what we currently hold in the warehouse. Where we don't hold the exact distillery featured in this guide, we say so honestly, and we're usually able to point you toward something close in style from what we do have.

If you have questions about any of this, or about Holyrood in particular, our contact page is the fastest way to reach us.

Frequently asked questions

Is Holyrood Edinburgh's first new distillery in a century?

That is the commonly cited claim, roughly a hundred years since the last new distillery was built in the city, though exact figures vary by source.

Can I visit Holyrood distillery?

Yes. It has run public tours since opening in 2019 in a converted former railway goods shed at St Leonard's.

When did Holyrood release its first single malt?

Arrival, released in October 2023 and named for the building's history as a railway shed.

What makes Holyrood's production unusual?

Deliberate experimentation with heirloom barley varieties and international yeast strains, well outside typical Scotch whisky convention.

Does Holyrood make anything besides whisky?

Yes. Height of Arrows gin, built around juniper, Isle of Skye sea salt and beeswax.

Does The Single Cask sell Holyrood whisky?

We own Holyrood casks that are still maturing, and we have not bottled one yet. Until we do, we point customers toward our Glasgow (Peated) 6 Year Old as a comparable modern Lowland single cask that is available now.