Craigellachie

Craigellachie distillery stands beside the River Spey in the village of Craigellachie, at the heart of Speyside’s whisky country. The name means ‘rocky hill’, taken from the cliff that rises opposite the Macallan distillery across the river. Alexander Edward led a group of blenders and merchants who built the distillery in 1891. Two years later it became a limited company, and in 1896 it was rebuilt as Craigellachie-Glenlivet Distillery Ltd. Ownership later passed to Peter Mackie, then to the Distillery Company Limited, and in 1930 to SMD, which brought steady years. The distillery’s history shows several changes of hands. In 1916 Peter Mackie took control, followed by the Distillery Company Limited in 1927 and SMD in 1930. Apart from doubling the number of pot stills in 1964–65, little changed until 1998, when John Dewar & Sons bought it. That same year Bacardi acquired Dewar’s from Diageo. In 2014 the distillery released four single malts as part of Dewar’s Last Great Malts of Scotland. Today its core range includes a 13-year-old, a 13-year-old finished in Bas Armagnac casks, a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old. Visitors find a working distillery set against the rocky hill and the Spey. The stillroom houses the enlarged set of pot stills installed in the 1960s. Warehouses hold casks used both for single malt releases and for blending into Dewar’s whiskies. The site’s quiet village setting keeps the focus on whisky-making rather than tourism.