Port Ellen Distillery

Port Ellen Distillery stands on the south shore of Islay, a windswept island off Scotland’s west coast. Founded in 1825, it grew under John Ramsay before becoming part of the Distillers Company in 1925. The site includes listed warehouses built by Ramsay that still store maturing spirit. After closure in 1983 the stills were removed and some buildings repurposed, yet the malting plant kept supplying all Islay distilleries. In 2024, after a £185 million revival, the distillery reopened with new stills recreated from 1980s factory records. The revival drew on former employees and historic data to recreate the original style. Alexander McDonald, a manager with experience at Kilchoman, Lagavulin and Caol Ila, led the project. A rare 1979 cask fetched £875,000 at auction in 2022, with five per cent donated to Care International. The first new release, the Port Ellen 200th Anniversary Edition, appears in October 2025 in a limited run of 150 bottles. Visitors walk past Ramsay’s stone warehouses to the new stillhouse where gleaming copper stills stand. Inside, the malting floor remains in use, supplying malt to every distillery on Islay. Beyond the buildings, the Sound of Islay stretches to the horizon, and the scent of sea and peat lingers in the air.