Clynelish Distillery

New distillery with an old brand name

History

This is the 'new' Clynelish distillery, AD1968. The old Clynelish distillery is now known as Brora and was built in 1819 by the Marquess of Stafford.

When the new distillery (circa three times larger than the first) went into operation the old one was re-named after the town.

Clynelish was initially licensed to Ainslie & Heilbron (Distillers) Ltd from Glasgow and became the property of United Distillers in 1986. UD merged with IDV in 1998 to form UDV, which is part of Diageo.

The new distillery may have taken over the Clynelish name, but not its habits. The original Clynelish (now Brora) is famous as one of the very few Highland distilleries that still used heavily peated malt for their whisky. To the dismay of peat-heads around the world the new Clynelish distillery produces a much lighter style of whisky.

As the sole representative of the coastal East region on Diageo's new distillery map, it mirrors Oban lonely position in the 'coastal West' area.