15 of the best distillery tours in Scotland

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1. Holyrood Distillery, Edinburgh

£ | Best for city centre sightseeing

In Edinburgh’s Old Town, this young distillery’s first single malt, Arrival, was released in October — with dried fruit, sticky toffee pudding and soft leather on the nose, and toffee and digestive biscuits on the palette. Founded in 2019 in a listed railway building in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat, just footsteps from the Royal Mile, it’s the first distillery in the city centre for over a hundred years. Celebrating the historic links between Edinburgh’s brewing and distilling industries, it collaborates with Pilot Brewery in Leith for its annual Mash Up beer and whisky festival. It also also offers Charmed Circle walking tours during the Edinburgh Festival, named in reference to the abundant natural water supply and high number of distilleries and breweries once found here. Tours include the tight-on-time Stills and Staves (with 15 minutes in the still room and a 15-minute tutored tasting) and the Journey to Whisky one-hour experience, which takes you through the whole process with a guided tasting of four spirits (including new make and aged new make spirits as well as fully matured whisky).

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2. The Port of Leith Distillery, Edinburgh

£ | Best for panoramic views

The UK’s first vertical distillery opened in October in Edinburgh’s dynamic docklands. Founded by two old friends, wine merchant Ian Stirling and finance director Paddy Fletcher, the nine-storey, £12 million distillery was ten years in the making and was inspired by the port’s historical links to whisky production. The eye-catching architecture is due to the limited size of the waterfront plot requiring them to build up not out. The 90-minute tour tells the story of the distillery from pipe dream to dram. Visitors can fill miniature bottles of new make spirit (the whisky of course is a while off) and taste their way through the distillery’s production process in the quality control tasting laboratory. You might not be able to enjoy its single malt just yet, but the top-floor mezzanine bar has 360-degree views over the city, a floor-to-ceiling whisky bar at the back and a mouth-watering menu of small plates showcasing Scotland’s natural larder.

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3. Johnnie Walker, Princes Street, Edinburgh

£-£££ | Best for an immersive experience

Styled as a shiny, high-tech department store spread over eight floors opposite the castle, the Johnnie Walker experience in Edinburgh is an interactive extravaganza of light, sound, smell, music and special effects. Complete an online questionnaire before arriving to establish a personal flavour profile, then sample specially tailored whisky cocktails during the tour. Watch the drama of Johnnie Walker’s life unfold on stage, from young farmer to whisky pioneer and top-hatted dandy. For connoisseurs there’s a vault filled with old and rare whiskies in the cellar. Don’t miss the elegant rooftop bars with views to the Firth of Forth and Edinburgh Castle. Tours are also available of three Highland distilleries that have produced single malts included in Johnnie Walker blends over the past 100 years.

4. Arbikie, Angus

£ | Best for a grain-to-glass experience

The entrepreneurial Stirling family, who have farmed this fertile stretch of the Angus coast for four generations, not only produce the UK’s first climate-positive gin (made from homegrown peas that are then fed to the cattle) and potato vodka, but also the first Scottish rye whisky in over 200 years. Made from grain grown on their 2,000-acre estate, the field-to-bottle single-estate Highland dram celebrates its terroir in water taken from an underground lagoon on the land and the state-of-the-art distillery housed in a former barn. The 60-minute Whisky Experience tour starts, naturally, with a view over the fields and overview of the farm’s history before heading to the old cowshed, which now contains the shiny copper stills, and finishes with a tutored tasting overlooking the glorious sweep of Lunan Bay.

arbikie.com

5. Nc’Nean, Lochaline, Morvern

£ | Best for environmental production

Independent, organic and sustainable, this distillery was created in 2017 from an old farm on the west coast’s Morvern peninsula. Nc’Nean proudly proclaims its eco credentials as the first whisky distillery in the UK to reach net-zero emissions for its operations. Appropriately, its name is Gaelic for “goddess of the spirits” as this light, floral whisky is created by a female-led team under the watchful eye of founder Annabel Thomas. Tours are informative but informal, and tea, cake and drams are all included. Nc’Nean also has two moorings for visitors, so you can sail up in your own yacht.

ncnean.com

6. The Glenlivet, Ballindalloch, Speyside

£-££ | Best for style and design

Perched in a remote glen on the edge of Cairngorm National Park, the Glenlivet was recently refurbished to create an elegant new visitor space more akin to a luxury hotel. Step through the main doors to be greeted by a plush, subtly lit space with a huge chandelier made from dried wildflowers. Learn about Glenlivet whisky through an immersive experience that delves into both the production and history. Later, repair to a private room to experience old and rare whiskies or try the astonishing cocktail capsules that melt on the tongue, followed by whisky-chocolate pairings. You can hand-fill your own cask-strength bottle of Glenlivet too.

theglenlivet.com

7. Lagavulin, Islay

£-££ | Best for tradition

A whisky suffused with the briny, earthy notes of this windswept Inner Hebridean island, Lagavulin is one of Scotland’s most beloved peaty whiskies — and it’s also the favourite of Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson. One of the older and more traditional distilleries on Islay, Lagavulin is famed for its distinctive red chimney, unusual pear-shaped stills and gorgeous views over the bay in front. For those who find the strong, smoky flavour a little too robust, there are younger, lighter expressions of Lagavulin available too.

malts.com

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8. Glenkinchie, Tranent, East Lothian

£-££ | Best for a nature experience

Hidden away in the heart of rural East Lothian, the Glenkinchie distillery creates a light floral whisky within a smart, newly refurbished red-brick Victorian building overlooking a charming wildflower garden pollinated by the bees of three hives. Its visitor centre has been awarded Scotland’s prestigious Green Tourism Gold Award and its hi-tech multisensory tour is a “flavour journey” that will delight, as will the enormous model that captures the distillery in miniature, built for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition. Afterwards head upstairs to the Scandi-influenced bar with elegant Ercol furniture and lovely garden views to enjoy a dram or two.

malts.com

9. Bunnahabhain, Port Askaig, Islay

£-£££ | Best for striking views

A long, narrow winding road overlooking the glorious Paps of Jura leads to Bunnahabhain, Islay’s most remote distillery. A brand new visitor space, built in the style of a traditional boat house, brings an array of tours where aficionados can admire the tallest “swan-neck” stills on the island and enjoy tutored tastings overlooking the stunning Sound of Islay. Unusually for an Islay whisky, Bunnahabhain’s signature style is unpeated, although in keeping with its roots, the distillery does produce some peated whiskies for those who like a smoky hit.

bunnahabhain.com

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10. Macallan, Aberlour, Speyside

MARK POWER/MAGNUM PHOTOGRAPHY

£-£££ | Best for stunning architecture

This £140 million flagship distillery and visitor experience is housed in a spectacular award-winning building on the Easter Elchies estate in Speyside. The antithesis of the traditional pagoda-style distillery, the Macallan is a semi-subterranean operation with a gently undulating roof that echoes the shape of the surrounding hills, and is topped with a wildflower sedum roof. There’s also a bar, a brasserie and a boutique, and special private tours are available that include a tutored tasting in Macallan’s iconic “cave privée” and a dram with the head ghillie in the estate’s fishing lodge.

themacallan.com

11. Hearach, Tarbert, Isle of Harris

£ | Best for a revival of tradition

The Isle of Harris distillery is best known for the product it’s making while waiting for its first whisky to mature: gin. Reviving a whisky-making tradition lost 170 years ago, the first lightly peated Hearach (Gaelic for a Harris islander) has been created using soft Hebridean water running over some of the oldest rocks in the world, and is currently maturing in bourbon and sherry casks. Time and taste will tell when it’s ready. Meantime, visitors can discover the people and processes creating this special whisky that expresses the deep elemental nature of this wild and lovely landscape on the edge of the Atlantic.

harrisdistillery.com

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12. Jura, Isle of Jura

£ | Best for the journey

A spectacularly beautiful island dominated by the Paps — its famed mountains — Jura has one road, one shop, one terrifying whirlpool and one distillery. Take the long way round via a CalMac ferry to neighbouring Islay or nip across in 45 minutes on a foot passenger cruiser from the mainland at Tayvallich. Both are unforgettable, and a distillery at the end is just the icing on the cake. Take a tour and discover how this little distillery has risen from the ashes to create its own distinctive island brand. Every September the distillery celebrates Jura and its whisky with a festival of traditional music, dancing and a few drams.

jurawhisky.com

13. Strathisla, Keith, Speyside

£-££ | Best for picturesque charm

Established in 1786, Strathisla is the oldest working distillery in the Highlands and the single malt at the heart of Chivas Regal blends. Distinctive by its traditional pagoda-style roof, the beautifully kept Strathisla sits in a bucolic setting on the banks of the River Isla. Tours exploring the ancient craft of distilling and blending are led by expert but informal guides, and include everything from a stroll around the distillery grounds and local landmarks, to a cask-strength tasting, creating a personal blend and sampling limited edition single malts.

morayspeyside.com

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14. Raasay, Isle of Raasay

£ | Best for community spirit

Almost singlehandedly reviving this island community, Raasay started off with gin in 2017 while maturing its first whisky. In the process it created a distillery, a visitor centre, a shop, a bar and a charming whisky hotel while arresting population decline on this tiny streak of land off the east coast of Skye. Setting out to emulate some older styles of Hebridean malts, the result is its flagship Raasay single malt which is lightly peated with dark fruit flavours. Tastings and tours are for connoisseurs and the curious alike, while enjoying one of the most dramatic views in Scotland, across to the Cuillin mountains on Skye.

raasaydistillery.com

15. Glenmorangie, Tain, Ross-shire

£ | Best for groundbreaking innovation

Presided over by Dr Bill Lumsden, sometimes called the Willy Wonka of whisky, Glenmorangie is firmly looking to the future with its science and its architecture. Marvel at the Lighthouse, the distillery’s magnificent glass innovation centre/whisky lab towering over the surrounding Victorian stone buildings with views over the Dornoch Firth. An award-winning master distiller, Lumsden was the genius responsible for finishing Glenmorangie’s whiskies in sweet wine casks, helping to produce their signature light, fruity, spicy flavours. Stay nearby at the delightful 17th-century Glenmorangie House and your distillery tour will be complimentary.

glenmorangie.com

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