Balblair Distillery

Bal­blair Dis­tillery is a Scotch whisky dis­tillery located in Edder­ton, Ross-shire, Scotland.

Orig­i­nally founded in 1790, the dis­tillery was rebuilt in 1895 by the designer Charles C. Doig to be closer to the Edder­ton Rail­way Sta­tion on the Inver­ness and Ross-shire Rail­way line. How­ever, so good was the orig­i­nal water source that the rebuilt dis­tillery chose to ignore a nearby burn in favour of the orig­i­nal Ault Dearg burn. To this day, the Bal­blair Dis­tillery con­tin­ues to use this orig­i­nal water source.

John Ross, the founder, ran Bal­blair as a thriv­ing busi­ness and in 1824 he was joined by his son, Andrew. The dis­tillery stayed in the Ross fam­ily until 1894 when the ten­ancy was taken over by Alexan­der Cowan. In 1948 the free­hold was bought by Robert Cum­ming, who promptly expanded the dis­tillery and increased pro­duc­tion. Cum­ming ran the dis­tillery until he retired in 1970 when he sold it to Hiram Walker. In 1996 Bal­blair Dis­tillery was pur­chased by Inver House Dis­tillers Limited.

Bal­blair has one of the old­est archives in dis­till­ing, with the first ledger entry dated 25^th Jan­u­ary 1800. John Ross him­self penned that first entry, which read: “Sale to David Kirk­caldy at Ard­more, one gal­lon of whisky at £1.8.0d”.

Bal­blair Sin­gle Malt whisky is bot­tled in three vin­tages — 1997, 1989 and 1979 — with the design inspired by the nearby Pic­tish stone Clach Bio­rach, which is thought to be 4000 years old.

The dis­tillery is now owned by Inver House Dis­tillers Lim­ited, whose other dis­til­leries include the Speyburn-Glenlivet Dis­tillery, Knock­dhu Dis­tillery, Old Pul­teney Dis­tillery and Bal­me­n­ach Distillery.