GlenWyvis

The land on which the distillery is located is owned by John Mckenzie, the founder and managing director of GlenWyvis. It was leased to the distillery for a term of 175 years and a fee of one pound.

The environmentally friendly GlenWyvis distillery uses different types of energy generation: solar energy, hydroelectric power, biomass boilers and wind turbines.

In 2021, three years after production began, the first (NAS) Single Malt Whisky was bottled. For this, a total of 18 casks (Tennessee Whiskey, Moscatel, Hogshead) from the first distillation year 2018 were blended into a floral-malty Whisky. After eight years, a Single Malt with age indication on the bottle is supposed to be bottled.

GlenWyvis' two stills were made at Forsyths Ltd in Rothes and are said to distil both Whisky and Gin.

The people of Dingwall can look back on a long distilling tradition. One of Scotland's most famous distilleries at the time was located in Dingwall. The Ferintosh distillery was established in 1690 and was the only one allowed to distil Whisky without paying taxes. This privilege lasted for almost a century but was revoked in 1784 after protests from neighbouring distilleries. Ferintosh Whisky was so famous that even the Scottish poet Robert Burns regretted this in his poem Scotch Drink. Thirty years later, the distillery faced hard times. Ruins of a distillery can still be found on the Ferintosh site today.

In 1879, the Ben Wyvis distillery was established in Dingwall (Not to be confused with the distillery of the same name that existed on the site of the Invergorden distillery from 1965 to 1977). In 1889, an Irish company bought out Ben Wyvis and renamed it Ferintosh three years later. But even the famous name could not save the distillery through the US Prohibition era, and it had to close in 1926.

In 1896, the Glenskiach Distillery was built north of Dingwall, but it only lasted 30 years. Prohibition had a significant impact on Glenskiach, too, and it was also closed in 1926 and demolished altogether in 1933.

In the late 1950s, as Blended Whisky became more popular, especially in America, the Whisky industry recovered and Invergordon Distillery, east of Dingwall, was established to produce Whisky for Blends. Today it is part of Whyte & Mackay and is the only Grain Whisky distillery in the Highlands.

GlenWyvis is aware of the area’s tradition and shows this in its name, which is a combination of the names of the distilleries Glenskiach and Ben Wyvis. The distillery was officially opened on 30 November 2017, meaning it was built in less than a year. This was made possible by more than 3,000 investors who supported the project with £3.8 million.

The GlenWyvis Basecamp is currently a shop and visitor centre in one. It features GlenWyvis Gin and gift items, as well as a Highland Inspiration Single Malt Whisky, bottled to celebrate the laying of the foundation stone in January 2017. Basecamp is part of the famous North Coast 500, a popular tourist route along the north coast of Scotland.

Unfortunately, a tour of the GlenWyvis production facilities is not possible. However, the distillery provides a virtual tour online.

The Basecamp is in the Victoria Restaurant at the following address:

The Victoria

4 High Street

Dingwall

IV15 9HL