The distillery

Glen Scotia Distillery 
12 High Street 
Campbeltown
Argyll PA28 6DS 
+44 1586 552 288
website: https://www.glenscotia.com

Owner: Loch Lomond Distillers

Creation date: 1835

The Glen Scotia distillery was founded in 1832 and not in 1835 as mentioned on the bottle, by Stewart Galbraith under the name of Scotia Distillery.
The business was very good at the end of the 19th century, and the owner had to buy another distillery in order to satisfy a growing demand. He choose the Glen Nevis distillery, also settled in Campbeltown.
Later, the Glen Scotia was taken over by W.H.M.D. (West Highland Malt Distillers), a society created in 1919 by a blender and whisky broker group. The aim was to face the crisis whisky industry crossed in the Campbeltown area in those days. This crisis was made even worse by the politics of the distilleries favouring the productivity to the detriment of the quality. The reputation of the area was getting very bad abroad. WHMD also owned Glengoyle, Dalintober, Kinloch and Ardlussa, all this distilleries being closed for a while now. Five years later, the group was bankrupt.
Duncan Mac Callum, one of the managers of WHMD decided to go on on its own, but had to close the distillery in 1928. He committed suicide in 1930 in the Campbell Loch. According to local tradition, his ghost is still haunting the distillery.
The distillery was taken over by the Bloch brothers, owner of Scapa the same year.
When business seemed to become better in the 30's, Glen Scotia was the only distillery who resumed production, because most of the 28 others had completely dismantled their installations.
The Bloch brothers sold both distilleries to Hiram Walker in 1954. Walker kept Scapa but sold Glen Scotia to A. Gilles & Co, group which became part of a blenders company called Amalgameted Distillers Products who closed the distillery in 1984 before they were taken over by Gibson International in 1989.
Glen Scotia belongs currently to the Loch Lomond Distillery company through its subsidiary company Glen Catrine Bonded. It has been mothballed from 1994 and is for sale since 1999. In the meanwhile, the distillery is ticking over under control of Springbank who produces during 3 months a year, waiting for an eventual resumption of Glen Scotia.

Bouteilles

See Springbank

Bottles

see Springbank

Bottles

Glengyle distillery
85 Longrow
Campbeltown Argyll PA28 6EX
Tel: +44 (0) 1586 552009

Owner:  J&A Mitchell & Company

Creation date: 1872, closed in 1925 and reopened in 2000

The Glengyle distillery has been the first to reopen in Campbeltown in 125 years. It is situated near Springbank and belongs to the same owner.
Glengyle was created in 1872 by William Mitchell and the construction took place in 1873. Its first life was rather short, as it closed in 1925. All the stock was sold in an auction and it was used from the early 1970's as the depot and sales office of the Kintyre Farmers Cooperation.
The great-great nephew of the founder, Hedley Wright decided to reopen this distillery, which was achieved in November 2000, making it the first new distillery in Campbeltown in more than one centruy.
The new distillery was operational at March 25, 2004 when the first Kilkerran batch was distilled.
Malting happens at the neighbour Springbank distillery and the mill was purchased (second hand) from Craigellachie disitllery. The wash still comes from Ben Wyvis.

Bottles

Springbank Distillery 
Well Close
Campbeltown, 
Argyll PA28 6ET
+44 1586 552 085 1828

Owner: J. & A. Mitchell Co. Ltd

Creation date 1828

Founded in 1828 by Archibald Mitchell, Springbank has always been the property of the Mitchell family. Archibald is the great-grandfather of the current owner. From the very beginning, the know-how of Archibald Mitchell was universally recognized, and his malt was already purchased for a high price by the contemporary blenders .
In those days about 30 distilleries were active in Campbeltown, while the city just had 1969 inhabitants. One of the characteristics of the whisky produced then is their strongly peaty character, like some of the current Islay whiskies.
The peaty whisky being less to the taste of the blenders in the 1850's, Springbank was one of the first distilleries in Campbeltown to dry their malt above a coal fire. There were coal mines round the town.
Campbeltown's distilleries business was flourishing until the great financial crisis in 1930. From this date, the distilleries were obliged to close, the one after the other. Also Springbank had to close for years.
Less changes have occurred since its creation. Springbank is one of the only distilleries to produce its own malt for 100%.
Fermentation happens in wooden washbacks, and is specially slow. It takes about 70 hours.
Springbank also owns a bottling plant.
The distillery produces 3 different malts. The first, called Springbank is distilled 2,5 times. The malt is dried for 6 hours above a peat fire, then for 24 hours by warm air. The result is a slightly peaty malt. For the distillation, the wash is distilled a first time, the distillation body being separated from the head and tail. Then a part of the low wines is redistilled,also with separation of head and tail. The feints obtained by this process are then distilled with the low wines from the first distillation.
Maturation happens in several types of cask: bourbon, refill, rum, madeira or sherry.
The second malt produced by the distillery is the Longrow, named after an old neighbour distillery, closed since 1896 and whose last existing warehouse shelters Springbank's bottling plant. This malt is dried above a peat fire for 100%, and the taste is stronger. Longrow has a classic double distillation. Nowadays, Longrow is marketed as a 10 years old version, but a 15 years old version is foreseen when the spirit will be that old. The Longrow production was restarted in 1897. Longrow is exclusively matured in refill casks.
The distillation of the third malt began in 1996, and an 8 years old version will be marketed. Hazelburn, named after another distillery closed since 1925 will be available soon. The malt for Hazelburn is exclusively dried by warm air and the maturation happens in Bourbon casks for 100%.
About 70% of the production is marketed as single malt, the remaining entering in the blends Campbeltown and Mitchell 12 years.

Bottles