Benbecula Distillery

An iconic new home for an island rum and a new whisky brand

Region

Output

Mash Size

Stills

Staff

Island

100,000 ltrs

2 Tonne

Speyside

18

“A lighthouse with a pot still in it. That’s such a strong idea that it’s viral. You’ll hear someone talk about this in years to come and clearly recall this design.”

This distillery re-purposes a former crab processing building to a new use as a distillery making rum and whisky. An extension built in the form of a lighthouse contains a spirit still, it’s super-prominent, visible along the causeway for hundreds of meters.

Perched at the tip of Benbecula in the Western Isles this is a stunning place to make spirits. The long view along the causeway creates such a prominent focal point that demanded a really strong feature.

This building totally personifies our design approach; it contains a design idea so strong that it’s viral - a lighthouse with a pot still in it. It is easily described and it lends an image to the new brand from day one.

The Western Isles have great maritime produce. Bringing spirits back to the Islands adds to the high quality food and drink offering. A new visitor space with a warming fire will welcome visitors, serving excellent seafood and own-make spirits.

The building is an ideal new use for a redundant building. High enough for tall pot stills, fire compartmentation, captured drainage and bunding has all been installed to make it fit for the new use.