Highland Park Distillery

One of the most northerly distilleries in Scotland on the Orkney islands, Highland Park proudly celebrates the viking heritage of the region in the names of its single malt bottlings. Before its official founding an illicit distillery had previously been run there by Magnus Eunson, a smuggler and allegedly a descendant of viking settlers in the area.

Only of only two distilleries on Orkney, Highland Park was founded by David Robertson in 1798. Later it was taken over by John Robertson, an excise officer who had arrested Magnus Eunson. From 1826 it was under the ownership of the Bowick family for two generations. But James Bowick was a priest who felt that making whisky was against his status as a man of religion. He started trying to sell the distillery off from 1869.

James Grant of Glenlivet bought it in 1895 and began a period of expansion. In 1898 the number of still operating doubled from two to four.

Highland Distillers took over in 1937 and began aggressively marketing Highland Park as a single malt. The majority of the distillery’s output is still used for single malt whiskies. Current owners the Edrington Group took over in 1999 when they bought Highland Distillers. Since the turn of the millennium the distillery has built up a massive array of single malt releases.

The distillery is equipped with a 12 ton mash tun, but this is only ever half filled, along with 12 Oregon Pine washbacks and four stills. Highland Park is also in the minority of distilleries which still does it own malting, and uses traditional floor maltings. These supply roughly 30% of the distillery’s needs, and produce a peated malt which is lighter than its Islay counterparts. This is because of the amount of heather in the peat taken from the nearby Hobbister Moor.

Highland Park has an expansive core range of age statement single malts ranging from 10 to 50 years old, along with a wide array of limited releases. The main bottlings are the 10 year old Viking Scars, 12 year old Viking Honour, and 18 year old Viking Pride. Spring 2019 saw the release of new editions of the 25, 30, and 40 year old, and a 21 year old was added in August. The sherry cask aged 12 year old is a perfect blend of sweetness, spice, and smoky peat. It has fresh aromas of heather joined by some honey and spice. More sweetness comes through on the palate, along with notes of malt and citrus before a long finish with lots of wood smoke and peat with more spice.

A grouping of three Viking Legends bottlings have been released in recent years. These started with the Valkyrie in 2017, and since then it has been joined by the Valknut and Valfather. The Valfather, released in 2019, is the most peated whisky to come from Highland Park yet. The peat smoke is joined by flavours of rich fruit and intense spice.