Bladnoch Distillery

Blad­noch Dis­tillery is located in south west Scot­land. It is one of only three remain­ing Low­land dis­til­leries, and is located at Blad­noch, near Wig­town, Dum­fries and Gal­loway. The dis­tillery is sit­u­ated on the banks of the River Blad­noch, and is the most southerly whisky dis­tillery in Scotland.

His­tory

The dis­tillery was founded by John and Thomas McClel­land in 1817 and dur­ing the period 1823 — 1826 pro­duced 28,956 gal­lons of whisky, an aver­age of 7,239 gal­lons per annum, and in the year 1826 — 1827 this had risen to 9,792 gallons.

By 1845 twenty work­ers, exclu­sive of trades­men, were employed in con­vert­ing 16,000 bushels of bar­ley per annum into spirit. In 1878 the dis­tillery was enlarged and mod­ernised, pre­sum­ably to cope with ris­ing pro­duc­tion. By 1887 the site occu­pied two acres with a fur­ther fifty acres being farmed by the pro­pri­etor, who was the son and nephew of the founders; the out­put had risen con­sid­er­ably to 51,000 gal­lons per annum.

In 1887 the dis­tillery was described, by John Barnard on his tour of dis­til­leries, as:

“A square pile of build­ings erected around a court­yard, with all the water used in the works com­ing from a mill dam sup­plied from the upper reaches of the river; an over­shot water wheel does all the dri­ving power. The Malt­ing House is a mainly stone build­ing 118 feet by 28 feet with a slated roof, the wood­work painted red; it has three floors, the ground floor for malt­ing and the top floors for bar­ley, each pos­sess­ing a stone step. There are besides, two other barns 95 feet by 32 feet sim­i­larly arranged. At left and right angles of the court are the kilns each loaded by a hoist, floored with per­fo­rated iron plates and heated with peats. On the top floor of the inter­me­di­ate build­ing there is a Malt Deposit on a level with the kilns and under­neath there is the Mill and Grist Loft.”

Also within the quad­ran­gle is the Mash House, 40 feet square con­tain­ing two Heat­ing Cop­pers hold­ing together 5,700 gal­lons and a Tun 16 feet in diam­e­ter and five and a half feet deep with stir­ring gear. Sunk in the bed of the water­course is the Under­bank, hold­ing 3,000 gal­lons. A few steps up from the yard is the Back House where against the wall are six Wash­backs, two hold­ing 6,000 gal­lons and four hold­ing 3,500 gal­lons; also a Miller’s Refrig­er­a­tor and the Wash Charger with a capac­ity of 3,500 gal­lons. The Still House, the old­est part of the estab­lish­ment con­tains three old Pot Stills con­sist­ing of a Wash Still of 13,000 gal­lons and two Low Wines Stills each of 400 gallons.

“The Receiv­ing Room con­tains three Low Wines and Feints Receivers, the Spirit Safe and a Spirit Receiver hold­ing 400 gal­lons. Out­side there are three Worm Tubs fed from the river and adja­cent a Spirit Store con­tain­ing a vat hold­ing 530 gal­lons and the Excise and Dis­tillery Offices. There are four Bonded Ware­houses ranged round a sec­ond court­yard hold­ing 805 casks con­tain­ing 80,700 gal­lons. The Peat Shed is sup­ported on iron columns and has a slated roof. In the main court­yard is a small cooper­age and cask shed.”

Dur­ing the 1890’s “mis­for­tunes” which are not spec­i­fied struck the dis­till­ing indus­try; these could have been the reduc­tion nation-wide in the pro­duc­tion of bar­ley, a pos­si­ble rise in excise duty and the growth of the var­i­ous tem­per­ance move­ments. The other dis­til­leries in Gal­loway were forced to close but Blad­noch sur­vived. Between 1911 and 1937 it was owned by Wm Dunville & Co. Ltd, an Irish com­pany, and on the out­break of World War II whisky pro­duc­tion ceased, but malt con­tin­ued to be pro­duced until 1949 when the dis­tillery closed until 1957.

Upon re-opening under new own­er­ship whisky pro­duc­tion began again and con­tin­ued under a num­ber of dif­fer­ent own­ers until 1983 when Bell’s took over and ini­ti­ated a pro­gramme of mod­erni­sa­tion and com­put­er­i­sa­tion. In 1987 the United Dis­tillers Group took over Bell’s and con­tin­ued the mod­erni­sa­tion as a result of which the weekly pro­duc­tion rose to over 8,000 gal­lons, more than eight times the out­put in 1887.

The dis­tillery was bought by Irish­man Ray­mond Arm­strong in 1996. His astound­ing energy has seen Blad­noch emerge from enforced silence into steam­ing, flow­ing pro­duc­tion. Visit Blad­noch Dis­tillery on the banks of the River Blad­noch, from which it takes its name. Located in this beau­ti­fully remote area of Gal­loway, the clus­ter of slate roofed stone build­ings hold the promise of sights and smells that have enticed vis­i­tors to Scot­land for many years. Wan­der through ware­houses steeped in the atmos­phere of sleep­ing whisky. Expe­ri­ence the noise and steam of the Mash House. Inhale the heady vapours of the Tun Room. Soar­ing cop­per stills await you as you enter the Still House to watch the spirit flow like liq­uid crys­tal through the spirit safe. Mean­der through the dis­tillery gar­dens and make your way to the Dram­ming Room to enjoy a dram of Bladnoch’s finest sin­gle malt whisky and appre­ci­ate our lit­tle cor­ner of heaven here in Galloway.