New Campbeltown distillery planned

Whisky dram pic

THE company behind the Isle of Raasay Distillery has unveiled plans to build a new “farm to bottle” distillery in Campbeltown.

R&B Distillers has acquired the Dhurrie Farm in Machrihanish and intends to construct a new distillery – The Machrihanish Distillery – on the site. The company has said it hopes to finalise planning later this year and break ground on the project in 2023.

It is one of two distillery projects R&B has planned. The business is also planning to construct a microdistillery in Coldstream in the Scottish Borders and is currently working with Borders Council and South of Scotland Enterprise to locate a site.

R&B Distillers launched Isle of Raasay Distillery in 2017, with the inaugural whisky released in 2020.

Bill Dobbie, co-founder and executive chairman of R&B Distillers, said: “When the business was founded in 2015 we had a clear ambition to create Scotland’s leading artisanal distiller – building on Raasay’s nascent success, and noticing the clear global demand for supreme quality drinks with unquestionable provenance, today’s announcement confirms significant progress towards this goal.”