Fettercairn Distillery

Fettercairn’s story

Fettercairn is located in the heart of one of the most fertile farming areas in Scotland. The distillery can be found close to the small town of Laurencekirk, that lies between Dundee and Aberdeen. This area of the eastern Highlands once had many distilleries, but numbers have dwindled over the last half century or so.

The distillery has a couple of peculiarities. The first is that it takes its water for production from an area in the Cairngorm mountains 40 miles to the west of the distillery. It is rare for a distillery to transport water over such a great distance. The second is a strange set up with the stills. Cold water is pumped to the top of the still and allowed to run via a copper ring down the outside of the neck. This increases reflux within the still, copper contact with the spirit and contributes significantly to the tropical, fruity flavour of Fettercairn. The water is collected, cooled and reused over and over again. Fettercairn is the only distillery to use this style of still.

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Fettercairn’s history

Fettercairn Distillery was founded in 1824 by Sir Alexander Ramsay and it was the second ever distillery in Scotland to take out a new license to distil following the introduction of The Excise Act in 1823. This legislation changed the way the industry was regulated and taxed. The original name was Old Fettercairn. It was soon to change hands, when Sir John Gladstone took control in 1830.

The distillery was partly gutted by a fire in 1887 and remained closed for three years while it was renovated. By this time, it was in the hands of the third generation of the Gladstone family with John Robert Gladstone at the helm. He formed the Fettercairn Distillery Company with some of his business colleagues during the time of rebuilding. By 1912 the company was on the verge of liquidation, and John rescued it by buying out every one of his partners. However, the distillery didn’t survive the slump in the whisky industry following the First World War and impact of Prohibition in America, closing in 1926.

Production restarted in 1939, when the facilities were taken over by new owners – a group called Associated Scottish Distillers Ltd. They doubled the capacity of the distillery during the 1960s. Its current capacity is 2.2 million litres per year. Owners Whyte & Mackay now split the matured whisky from Fettercairn for their own range of blended whiskies and an ever expanding core range of single malts. This was revamped further to create seperate domestic and travel retail ranges in 2024.

• How to pronounce Fettercairn? fett-err-care-n
• Country: Scotland
• Region: Highlands
• Founded: 1824
• Current owners: Whyte & Mackay
• Production capacity per year: 2.2 million litres
• Mash tun: 5 ton cast iron
• Washbacks: 11
• Stills: 4
• Visitor centre: Yes

Fettercairn Distillery
Laurencekirk
Kincardineshire
AB30 1YE
tel – +44(0)1561 340205
www.fettercairnwhisky.com

Did you know?

Former Fettercairn distillery owner Sir John Gladstone was the father of William Gladstone – the UK’s second longest serving Prime Minister, who held the position for 12 years and 126 days over four non consecutive periods (1868–1874, 1880–1885, 1886, and 1892–1894).