Distilleries

Rosebank Distillery: The King of the Lowlands, Back From 1993

Rosebank was mothballed in 1993 over the cost of an effluent upgrade and became the most sought-after Lowland ghost distillery in Scotch whisky. Ian Macleod Distillers reopened it in 2023, three de...

InchDairnie Distillery: The Mash Filter Rewriting Lowland Rules

InchDairnie is one of only two Scotch distilleries using a mash filter instead of a traditional mash tun. Founded 2015 in Fife, it also makes a pot-still rye. History, the production process and ho...

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

Holyrood opened in 2019 inside a former railway engine shed, the first new distillery built in Edinburgh in roughly a hundred years. History, its heirloom-barley experiments and how to find a flavo...

Annandale Distillery: Closed by Johnnie Walker, Rebuilt From a Ruin on the Border

Annandale closed in 1921 and sat empty for the best part of eighty years. It opened in 1830, grew through the Victorian whisky boom, was bought outright by John Walker and Sons, then shut its doors...

Kingsbarns Distillery: From a Golf Caddie's Dream to the Wemyss Family's Own Lowland Malt

Kingsbarns is one of Scotland's newer distilleries, with an unusual story behind it. The idea came from Douglas Clement, a local golf caddie who saw an opportunity to build a whisky distillery clos...

Bladnoch Distillery: Scotland's Southernmost Whisky Survivor

Most Scotch distilleries have one closure in their history, if that. Bladnoch has had four, and the distillery has come back from every single one. Tucked into the farmland of Wigtown, in Dumfries ...

Glasgow Distillery: The Whisky That Broke a 113 Year Drought

Glasgow went without a working distillery for over a century. The city that once had at least half a dozen licensed operations lost its last one in 1902, and for the next 113 years anyone wanting a...

Girvan Distillery: The Grain Giant That Started From a Grudge

Girvan does not look like most distilleries in this series, and it does not run like one either. There is no pot still, no visitor centre built around a single malt story, and no single building mo...

Auchentoshan Distillery: Scotland's Full-Time Triple Distiller

Auchentoshan is one of only two Scotch distilleries that triple distil their entire output, a light, citrus-driven Lowland malt from the edge of Glasgow. We bottled our own single cask from here, a...

Glenkinchie Distillery: The Lowland Face of Diageo's Four Corners

Glenkinchie is Diageo's Lowland flagship near Edinburgh, one of the original Classic Malts and the smallest-known of the Four Corners of Scotland. We have never bottled it, and our new guide says s...