The Dalwhinnie Distillery is the highest in the UK Badenoch and Strathspey Inverness-shire Scotland
‘Dalwhinnie’ means ‘meeting place’ and it was the junction of the main cattle droving routes from the north and west of the Highlands. Herds and herdsmen would rest here before tackling the final surge to the great cattle trysts in the Lowlands. Here too General Wade’s military road divided to follow similar directions and the line of the road actually runs through the grounds of the distillery. Many battles were fought in this very amphitheatre, the advantage of the home-fixture very much with the clansmen. Cromwell’s Ironsides were sent packing from here and Bonnie Prince Charlie and his men camped on the moors behind the distillery on the way south after his Standard was raised at Glenfinnan. The distillery buildings are a visual pun, their black roofs and white walls referring to the Black & White blended whisky brand for which licensees, Buchanan’s, are well known. The original name was the Strathspey distillery, built this high at 1073 feet (327m) in 1898 to have the closest access to the uncontaminated, cold water of Lochan an Doire-uaine. Of course this was the worst possible time to be building a distillery and the company went into liquidation almost immediately. The name was changed to Dalwhinnie by the following owners and specialist distillery architect, Charles Doig of Elgin, was brought in to upgrade the buildings and layout. Dalwhinnie closed for several years after a serious fire in 1934, a time when there was still no electricity in the distillery or the village and paraffin lamps were still in use. Nor was there a telephone. The distillery is surrounded by vast peat deposits, an important amenity in the early days, but its malt comes pre-peated from central maltsters now and has light-to-medium reek. Most of the storage capacities for raw materials are large making it possible for the distillery to produce for over a month if need be when it is snowed in.
Size: 5130px × 3407px
Location: Dalwhinnie Distillery Newtonmore Inverness-shire Highland Region Scotland UK
Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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