Brora Distillery

What became known as Brora distillery was originally founded as Clynelish in 1819 by the Marquis of Stafford, who later became the first Duke of Sutherland. The distillery passed through multiple hands over the next century, before Distillers Company Limited became joint owner in 1912. They acquired sole control in 1925 after buying out their partner, James Risk.

The distinct shift from Clynelish to Brora happened in the 1960s. In ‘67 Distillers Company Limited built a brand new distillery across the road from the original. This would become the new Clynelish and continue to produce the whisky associated with that brand and style. They ran in conjunction for the better part of two years before the old distillery closed in 1969.

That same year it was revived by DCL, who renamed it Brora. More than just a change of name took place, as the character of the spirits produced at Brora were highly distinct from Clynelish. They could also vary greatly based on whatever hole in its inventory DCL needed to fill at the time.

When Brora was first reopened in 1969 it was due to shortage of Islay malt at the time caused by a drought. For the first several years of its operation Brora produced heavily peated spirits, unusual for a Highlands distillery. By 1973 the distillery had shifted to making a more lightly peated spirit as conditions recovered on Islay.

Though production came to a halt once again in 1983, there still remained a significant quantity of old stock which has continued to be released in the years since. The first came out in 1995 under United Distillers in the Rare Malts series. These were two 1972 vintage bottlings aged 20 and 22 years.

Though new bottlings of Brora have continued to be released in the years since its closure, little of the old stock still remains. This looked like the end until 2017, when Diageo announced that Brora would reopen. The project was granted planning permission in October 2018, and reconstruction work got underway the following year. While it’s intended that many of the distillery’s original buildings will be restored, for structural reasons the still house will be demolished and a new one built in its place.

But the original copper pot stills will return after they were discovered undisturbed at the old distillery. Though in need of repair, they were found to be structurally sound and sent to Abercrombie coppersmiths in Alloa to be brought back into service. Once operational it's expected that Brora will have an annual production capacity of 800,000 litres a year.

Brora has been a consistent feature of Diageo’s Special Releases range since that was launched in 2002. The most recent bottling from the distillery is a 40 year old distilled in 1978, which came out in 2019 to mark Brora’s 200th anniversary. Independent bottlings are also available from companies such as Gordon & McPhail and Duncan Taylor.