Lindores Abbey Distillery

LowlandBuiltConversion

10 Mar

Written By bari reid

The Spiritual Home of Scotch Whisky, revived after 523 years.

Region

Output

Mash Size

Stills

Staff

Lowland

260,000 ltrs

2 Tonne

Forsyths

“But how do you fit all that distilling equipment into an old single storey farm steading?”

Andrew and Helen Mackenzie-Smith approached us to help bring back distilling to the site of the earliest record of whisky making in Scotland on their family estate, complete with an historic ruined abbey (so absolutely no pressure!)

With the amount of archaeological interest in the site, it was no surprise that as soon as we started taking down walls we found a number of “robbed” carved stones from the abbey in the old steadings. The old roofs were removed and stone walls taken down to a level before starting to rebuild the complex as the new distillery.

New steel and glu-luminated timber frames were inserted into the existing building footprint to carry new roofs over the production equipment. Traditional construction techniques and details are used throughout the new construction with contemporary frameless glass filling between the old stone and traditional fife roof.

Visitor experience is integrated throughout the different areas of the building, there’s a huge oak table which day to day provides information to visitors, but occasionally hosts a wedding dinner (or the Fife Whisky festival!) The production hall has the ability to host small gatherings where you can beside Dodo, Poppy and Gee (the stills!) for a special dinner overlooking the Abbey Ruins.

Lindores have now released their first Malt which is following their Aqua Vitae in turning heads and winning awards in the industry, the building too has received industry awards and commendations for the Architecture and Visitor Experience.