Lochranza
KA27 8HJ
Contact: Tom Pearson
Tel: 01770 830264
Fax: 01770 830364
Email: arran.distillers@arranwhisky.com
Web: www.arranwhisky.com
Email Our visitor Center: visitorcentre@arranwhisky.com

 

It rises through peat, runs over granite, then tumbles down a hillside before it is diverted into the Lochranza distillery. Water on Arran was tested on eight different sites before this water from the Eason Biorach burn was chosen in 1994 as the purest and best. The first spirit was distilled in June 1995 and pronounced, by the top whisky 'noses' in the country, as: 'well-balanced... with favourable aromas... more robust than expected... a delicate pepperiness rather than peatiness... unusually sweet... fine malty notes...'

Built in the traditional style using beaten copper for the stills and spruce for the fermenting mash tubs, this is not the first whisky making enterprise on the island.

Before the tax on malt in 1725, when illicit distilling became common, farming clachans on the island had made their own pot-still whisky with a rustic method which was used throughout the Highlands.

It was this illegal Arran whisky which the islanders carried in barrels down to the shore and loaded into boats, to be ferried across to the mainland to use as barter for other necessities. Among all the whisky distilled in the Firth of Clyde, none was more popular, says the Ayrshire historian James Paterson, than the' Arran Water commonly kept in kegs under the bed by many Ayrshire landladies'. Throughout 150 years of illicit whisky distilling many Arranachs were pursued by excisemen who were doing their duty as Government tax collectors. Their system of avoiding capture was to cross to the mainland with the whisky during darkness, often in bad weather. It became a rich source of whisky-smuggling legend on the island with dramatic and sometimes tragic stories of whisky and men lost at sea or shot at by the excisemen. The new Isle of Arran distillery commemorates the death of illicit whisky distiller, Lachie, in a huge mural which covers an entire wall in the £1m visitor centre.

Beneath it, a waterfall of undistilled Arran water, tumbles over a thirty foot man made rockface. A tour of the distillery begins at the waterfall and ends in the bar with a tasting of the product itself.

Product Range: Arran Single Malt, Lochranza Premium Blend Whisky, Holy Isle Cream Liqueur.

Distribution: Retail, Wholesale and Mail Order (through the Stirling office Tel. 01786 431900).
On Arran: Widely available.
Delivery area: National and International.

Open all year but call in advance during winter months to check times. Guided tours of the Arran distillery with whisky tasting. Fully stocked Distillery Shop for whisky products and gifts.

Part of the West Highland Whisky Trail. Email for futher information on participating distilleries.