Glendullan Distillery
Dufftown, Keith
Banffshire AB55 4DJ
+44 1340 820 250
Owner: Diageo
Creation year: 1897
The distillery has been created in 1897 by the blender William Williams. This is the seventh distillery around Dufftown. A local saying is: “Rome was built on seven hills and Dufftown stands on seven stills.” Glendullan was however not the last one as two more distilleries have been build round the town. Currently, there are 6 of them in activity.
It has been said that the distillery has been build because an attempt to buy Glenfiddich and The Balvenie was not successful. The new distillery has been build near these two distilleries, in order to guarantee a whisky with the same quality.
William Williams joined the Greenlees Brothers in 1919. Greenlees belonged to Alexander & MacDonald in those days. The company, which has been renamed in MacDonald Greenlees was also owner of the Auchinblae an Stronachie distilleries. Those distilleries closed respectively in 1926 and 1928.
Also Glendullan had to close like many other distilleries during World War II, due to a lack of Barley. Glendullan remained closed from 1940 up to 1947. The distillery has been refurbished in the early 1960's. A new distillery has been build near the old one in 1970-1971.
As both distilleries were producing exactly the same malt because they were using the same water and the same processing and were settled in the same area, the old distillery stopped production for good in 1985.
