Clynelish Distillery

Clynelish Distillery stands near Brora in Sutherland, a quiet stretch of the Highlands where the land rolls gently toward the sea. The present buildings date from 1967, replacing an earlier works built in 1819 just a few metres away. Both sites once produced whisky side by side, the new plant running as Clynelish B while the old one was tested and then closed. In 1969 the original distillery reopened under the name Brora, making peated whisky for Johnnie Walker while Caol Ila was shut for repairs. Brora’s spirit reached about thirty to thirty-five parts per million of peat, close to the levels found in Caol Ila and Lagavulin. The whisky made here became part of Johnnie Walker blends for one year and then continued as a single malt until July 1983. After the stills fell silent, Brora whisky grew rare and sought-after, selling for around one and a half thousand pounds a bottle. The distillery marked its bicentenary by releasing 1819 bottles of a forty-year-old single malt, each numbered to recall the first year of production. Clynelish itself has long supplied the backbone of Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve, linking the two names in the blended whisky world. Visitors once walked through the modern visitor centre opened in 2021, where copper stills and warehouse racks stood under glass roofs. The centre showed how barley is malted, mashed, fermented and distilled before maturing in oak casks. Outside, the Moray Firth sparkles on clear days and the hills behind Brora rise in heather-covered ridges. The air carries the faint sweet smoke of the stills, a reminder of the peaty spirit once made here.