Dumbarton distillery
2 Glasgow Road
Dumbarton GB2 1ND
Owner: Pernod Ricard
Creation year: 1938
The distillery has been created in 1938 by Hiram Walker, short after he acquired Ballantine in 1936. This grain distillery has been the greatest in Scotland.
Several distilleries shared the site: Dumbarton, Inverleven and Lomond. All of them are closed by now. The Dumbarton distillery was not famous only because it ahs been the biggest in Scotland, but also because its original security system (Scotch Watch) consisting in 5 geese. In 2001, 100 birds were watching on the installations.
Hiram Walker sold the distillery to Allied Distillers which would later become Allied Domecq. When Pernod Ricard acquired Allied Domecq, they also became the owner of Dumbarton. The distillery is closed with no hope to reopen inthe future. Main reason herefor is that the installations are very old and difficult to modify. To compensate the production lost because of this closing, big investments have been made at Strathclyde.
