Isle of Jura Distillery
Craighouse, Isle of Jura
Argyll PA60 7XT
+44 1496 820 240
Owner: Whyte & MacKay
Creation year: 1810
The Isle of Jura has less than 300 inhabitants and is famous for its deers and its mountains, the Jura Paps. According to some sources, Isle of Jura could be the oldest scottish distillery.
The first traces of distillation are found as soon as the 16th century.
The distillery has been renamed several times. Originally it was called Caol'nan Eileanm Craighouse, Small Isles and Lagg.
The distillery has been build in 1810 and the first known owner is William Abercrombie who obtained a licence in 1831. From the next year the distillery was managed by Archibald Fletcher for about 20 years. It has been owned by several owners during the 19th century: J&A Gardner, Norman Buchananm J.K.&D. Orr and James Furgusson.
A decision of the landlord to collect taxes on all the buildings decided the Furgusson family to move all the material to Glasgow. This was not enough to discourage the landlord who continued to hound the Furgussons. But the Furgussons were clever people, and they knew the tax law was not applicable to buildings without a roof. So they went back to Jura and dismantled the distillery roofs...
After having been closed for about 40 years between 1914 and 1958, the distillery has been completely rebuild with the financial aid of the Scottish & Newcastle Breweries.
The distillery has been build by the well known architect Delmé Evans who also built amongst others, the distillery of Glenallachieand Jura. Evans died on 6 october 2003, aged 83.
The number of stills doubled in 1978.
In the past, the malt produced by the distillery was much more peaty, on the model of those of the neighbour Isle of Islay.
The Scottish & Newcastle Breweries left the distillery in 1985 to Invergordon Distillers who became part of White & Mackay. This last company became the Kyndal Spirits in 2001.
From 2003 it is one of the key distilleries of Whyte and Mackay Ltd, formally Kyndal Spirits Ltd. Kyndal Spirits Lyd changed its name in Whyte and Mackay Ltd in 2003.
