Glenugie

Glenugie was a distillery on the outskirts of Peterhead, in the northeast of Scotland. For a time it was the most easterly distillery in the country. The distillery was established in 1831 and operated until 1983. Most of the buildings have since been demolished.

Glenugie was once described as one of the finest distilleries in the north of Scotland.

Glenugie produced a sweet, floral Highland single malt. It was known for a butterscotch note and had a slightly medicinal character.

Prior to closure, the distillery used unpeated malt. In earlier days, the spirit was peated. When Alfred Barnard visited in 1885, he found a kiln heated with peats from a bog some five miles away.

Barnard found the distillery equipped with four washbacks, each capable of holding 9,500 gallons. There were two pot stills with tall, conical necks. The wash still held 5,360 gallons while the spirit still took 2,860.

Unusually, the stills were fitted with both condensers and worm tubs. Spirit vapours fed through shell and tube before condensing a second time in the worm tubs. Even more bizarrely, the wash still condenser was mounted horizontally.

Most of the whisky produced at Glenugie went into blends like Long John. Single malt bottlings were rare but have become more common since the distillery closed. Glenugie has featured in the Signatory Vintage Cask Strength series and a 1966 vintage was bottled as part of Gordon & Macphail's Connoisseurs Choice range.

A distillery named Invernettie was built on the site of an old windmill near Peterhead in 1831. Founded by Donald McLeod, the business lasted just three years before closing down. In 1836, the building was sold and converted into a brewery.

In 1879, the brewery was sold to George Whyte & Co who reinstalled distilling equipment and named their new venture, Glenugie. Once again, however, the owners struggled and production ceased two years later.

The distillery’s most successful period came when it was purchased by Simon Forbes in 1884. Forbes ran the business until 1915, guiding it through the dramatic industry downturn of the early 20^th century.

With the arrival of the First World War, Glenugie fell silent once more. Distillation resumed in 1923 but stopped again two years later. This time the distillery remained dormant until 1937 when it was relaunched by Seager Evans & Co, owner of the Long John blended Scotch whisky brand.

Schenley International acquired Seager Evans in 1956 and invested heavily in Glenugie. They installed a new oil system to replace the coal-fired boiler and removed the worm tubs. 

As production increased, the distillery's warehouses began to fill up. To resolve the problem, the malting floor was closed and converted into additional storage space. From then on, the distillery worked with an industrial maltster to supply its barley requirement.

Over-production of Scotch whisky came to a dramatic head in the 1980s. In what became known as the whisky loch, many distilleries were forced to close. Glenugie, by then part of Whitbread, ceased distilling in 1983.

Any chance of a revival was lost when the site was sold to a North sea oil company. Only the warehouse buildings remain. Though, ironically, the stump of the original windmill that predates the distillery can still be seen.