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Moray Council
gives the go ahead for a new Cabrach
Distillery and visitor attraction in
Speyside which will celebrate Scotland’s
illicit whisky history.
Moray Council this week gave the go
ahead for a new Cabrach Distillery in
Speyside, a £5.3million distillery and
visitor attraction which will celebrate
Scotland’s illicit whisky history, while
creating 12 new jobs and training
opportunities. The new distillery will
be located in the wild and remote
Cabrach area on the southern edge of
Moray and right in the heart of
Speyside.
The folks behind the new Cabrach
distillery is The Cabrach Trust which
was was established to aid rural
regeneration within and around the
Cabrach area which is said to be one of
the birthplaces of Scotch whisky, the
Cabrach was famed for illicit stills and
smuggling in years gone by.
150 years after the last legal
distillery closed in the Cabrach a new
Cabrach distillery which will be
operated along historical lines will be
opened at Inverharroch Farm,
which is owned by the Trust and will be
converted into a historic whisky
distillery.
The Cabrach Trusts plans include the
distilling, maturation and bottling of a
unique whisky, using the blueprint of an
early 19th-century distillery and made
with historical methods.
Construction work is set to begin summer
2018, with production getting underway
in 2019 and if all goes to plan we
should see the first bottling of mature
Cabrach single malt whisky in 2024, with
150,000 bottles expected to be produced
each year.
All ingredients for the whisky will be
sourced locally with water coming from
natural springs located on the land
surrounding the distillery. The whisky
will be matured in the Cabrach in
quarter casks and bottled on site.
A share offer will be announced next
year, giving supporters the chance to
get involved at an early stage and own a
small piece of whisky history.
Sue Savege, executive director of the
Cabrach Trust, which will transform the
existing Inverharroch Farm into the
visitor attraction with the aim of
putting the Cabrach on the tourist map
and marking its place in the story of
Scotch whisky commented: "Now we have planning permission in
place we are aiming to start work on
site in the summer of 2018. In the meantime, we are busy working on
the final specification of the
distillery, which will use historical
methods, and conducting further research
in partnership with the ICBD into the
exact balance of process, ingredients
and maturation, as it's crucial we get
the flavour right for our very own
Cabrach whisky.
"The distillery and heritage centre are
at the heart of our plans to regenerate
the Cabrach and contribute to a
sustainable future for this beautiful
but remote part of Moray, which has seen
a huge decline in population over the
years.
"This is a major milestone for us and we
are very grateful to the Moray Council,
which has been extremely supportive of
the plans, and to all those who have
contributed to the project. We are
looking forward to seeing the plans
reach fruition for this important region
in the story of Scotch whisky."
The distillery will be operated by the
Cabrach Trust, with the aim of putting
the Cabrach back on the whisky map and
stamping its place in the earliest
history of Scotch whisky production.
Earlier this year, researchers
commissioned by the Trust discovered the
site of an illicit whisky bothy thought
to date back to the early 19th-century,
sheltered by a small crag and built into
the side of the hill, offering smugglers
a vantage point to keep an eye out for
excise men on the nearby highway.
Chairman and founder member of the
Cabrach Trust, Grant Gordon, said: "The
Cabrach has a long and colourful whisky
distilling history. The Cabrach
Distillery will celebrate this rich
birth right, telling the as-yet untold
story of the early days of farm
distilling and the smuggling which was
rife in the area, while the historical
distillery will reflect production
methods that were used in the Cabrach at
the dawn of the modern distilling era in
the early 1800’s.
"In 1823, after a number of attempts by
Government to put an end to illicit
distilling and smuggling, a new Act of
Parliament heralded in the era of
commercial distilling. As a result,
licenses were issued in the 1820s for
three distilleries in the Cabrach at
Lesmurdie, Tomnaven, and Buck Distillery
at Blackmiddens.
"The heritage centre which will be
associated with the distillery will tell
the story about illicit distilling and
relate that to production, so visitors
can learn about the history of illicit
whisky and smuggling and at the same
time, go and see an operating historical
distillery."
The planned £5.3million distillery and
heritage centre makes use of the
existing traditional farm steadings at
Inverharroch and has been designed by a
team led by local architects, AKA Ltd,
and interior designers, Surface ID. The
distillery design team has been
supported by a group of industry experts
and Scottish whisky historians, Kieran
German and Gregor Adamson.
The historical distillery will be open
to the public and the heritage centre
will offer an engaging and informative
experience, with a dedicated
interpretation centre, a flexible
performance and exhibition space and
smuggling trails, designed to appeal to
whisky enthusiasts, heritage lovers and
children alike.
The Cabrach Trust is a social enterprise
and all profits generated by the
distillery and heritage centre will be
reinvested to further the Trust social
aims of providing jobs and services to
regenerate this remote highland
community, the Trust
will shortly be offering whisky
lovers an opportunity to purchase shares
in the Cabrach Distillery.
The Trust needs to raise funds of
£5.3million to develop the farm
buildings and is seeking support for the
fundraising campaign. A share offer will
be announced in May 2018.
Please get in touch if you are
interested by calling or emailing Sue
Savege, Executive Director of The
Cabrach Trust, on 0560 384 5996 or
info@thecabrachdistillery.uk
Visit www.cabrachtrust.org for more
information about the proposed
historical distillery.
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