Glenlochy distillery
North Road
Inverlochy, Fort William
Invernessshire PH33 6TQ
Owner: when the distillery was in activity: Diageo
Currently: West Coast Inns Ltd
Année de création: 1898
The Glenlochy distillery has been founded in 1898 by David McAndies, who was the director of the Glenlochy Fort William Distillery Co. The first production took place in 1901, three years later. In those hard times for distilleries, Glenlochy had to close during WWI and again in 1919. 6 years later, the distillery resumed production, in 1925. But not for a long time... as it is mothballed the very next year in 1926 for about 10 years, before being purchases in 1937 by Train & McIntyre who resumed the production from 1938. From that time, the distillery has been part of Associated Scottish Distilleries. DCL (which would become Diageo later) acquired Train & MacIntyre from an American company called Nationa Distillers and Glenlochy is transfered to Scottish Malt Distillers (SMD). Production continued until 1983, when the distillery was definitely closed, just like so many others in those times.
The owners applied for permission to demolish the distillery, and this permission was not given as the distillery is part of Scottish history. The premices have been sold to a hotel group, West Coast Inns Ltd, and they got the permission to demolish the distillery, with the exception of the kiln and the pagoda roof, declared a historic building.
Apart from some (rare) independent bottlings (Gordon & MacPhail, Duncan Taylor) and an edition in the Rare Malts series, the whisky of this distillery is very difficult to find.