I was updating the Islay Whisky Distilleries Page on Islay Info today with an updated map, new photos and updated texts. While I was creating the map I made an overview of the eight active distilleries. I also included the four planned distilleries being Ardnahoe Distillery, Port Ellen Distillery, Gartbreck Distillery and Port Charlotte Distillery. The status of some is somewhat uncertain at the moment.

From Ardnahoe we know that they will probably start producing whisky this year and Port Ellen is planned for 2020.

Gartbreck Distillery is uncertain, there was a dispute about land, but that seems to be resolved now. It is not known to me if construction of the distillery is still on the horizon. Fingers crossed though as the location is quite amazing.

And there is Port Charlotte Distillery. From the four planned distilleries this seems to be the least probable one to come to fruition. But one never knows.... Continue reading....

Rumours

This leaves me with 12 distilleries. But... There are rumours of course. One of these rumours is a distillery at Farkin, between Port Ellen and Laphroaig. It is said that Sukhinder Singh of the whisky exchange is supposed to be behind the plans of Farkin Distillery. I wrote about that in November 2017. Sukhinder is probably rolling over the floor laughing when he reads this! For what it is worth, there is a domain registered for www.farkindistillery.com but that doesn't mean a lot as it has no content, the owner can't be traced, nor does it say it will be on Islay! Another rumour popped up in the last weeks, and that's Bridgend Distillery, or a distillery near Bridgend. There has been distilling in this area many years ago, see our lost Islay distilleries page. The location of the new Bridgend Distillery would be roughly between Whin Park and Islay House but again, these are all rumours so please take them with a good pinch of salt.

That leaves us with enough whisky distillery excitement for the years ahead as it is certain that there will be 10 distilleries in a few years time, and perhaps even 14 in the near future. Who knows :-)

Tag: islay whisky distillery whisky distilleries