Glen Albyn

Glen Albyn was a whisky distillery in the highland city of Inverness. Founded in the late 19^th century, it closed in 1983, a victim of the “whisky loch”.      

The distillery produced a light spirit that matured into a fruity and floral single malt with a touch of peat.    

Most of the spirit produced at Glen Albyn was destined for blended Scotch. However, a few single malts were bottled in the 1970s. In 2001, a 26-year-old, 1975 vintage was added to Diageo’s Rare Malts Collection.

The distillery drew its water from the famous Loch Ness. There were two pot stills: one wash and one spirit still. Each fed into a D-shaped worm tub. The condenser's unusual design helped to cool spirit vapours quickly.

Glen Albyn was one of the first distilleries to install Saladin boxes. The mechanical malting system replaced the traditional floor maltings in 1954. It remained in operation until 1980. After that, the distillery sourced its requirements from an industrial maltster. 

A handful of single cask bottlings have been released by the likes of Gordon & MacPhail and Douglas Laing. However, such releases are becoming increasingly rare as stocks dwindle.      

Glen Albyn was founded by James Sutherland. Inverness was once something of a malting hub with several maltsters and mills. Glen Albyn was installed on the site of one such building in 1846.

Its location at the Eastern Locks of the Caledonian Canal, within close proximity of the Highland Railway, gave the distillery excellent transport links. Nevertheless, it operated for just six years before closing.

The site was silent for a number of years before being converted into a flour mill in 1866. Distillation eventually returned in 1884 under the ownership of Gregory & Co.

In 1892, distillery manager John Birnie left to form a partnership with Charles MacKinlay. MacKinlay was a blender from Leith, Edinburgh. The two men established Glen Mhor on land next to Glen Albyn. In 1920, MacKinlay & Birnie bought Glen Albyn, bringing the two distilleries together.

Production came to a halt in 1917 when the distillery was requisitioned as a naval base. For two years it manufactured mines for the war effort.

Glen Mhor was fitted with Saladin boxes in 1950. Glen Albyn followed in 1954. Both distilleries were then taken over by the Distillers Company Ltd in 1972. Within a decade, the future for the two distilleries was looking rather bleak. 

Excess stocks led to a market crash that became known as the whisky loch. Several distilleries were forced to close. Port Ellen and Brora were the most famous but there were others, Glen Mhor and Glen Albyn among them.

Three years after it closed, the distillery was demolished to make way for retaill premises. Nothing of the site's former glory remains to be viewed today.