Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery

Spirit of Yorkshire’s story

The Spirit of Yorkshire distillery is the brainchild of Tom Mellor and David Thompson. It is in the village of Hunmanby, between the towns of Bridlington and Filey in Yorkshire. It was the first single malt distillery to ever be registered in the county and gives a true ‘field to bottle’ offering. The single malt range is named after the nearby beauty spot of Filey Bay.

All barley needed for whisky production is grown on a nearby farm, which is owned by Mellor’s family since 1945, before producing, maturing and bottling all spirit on site. The milling, mashing and fermentation parts of the process take place at the Wold Top brewery. This is also owned by Mellor and was founded in 2003. It is a couple of miles from the distillery. Distillation began in Spring 2016 and current production sits at just over 100,000 litres per year. There is potential to expand to 450,000 litres.

The distillery has been designed to be extremely environmentally friendly and efficient. A heat exchange system ensures that any excess heat is recycled and used in other areas. However, they are also a champion for the regenerative farming method on Mellor’s farm. This means they plant cereal directly into a natural understory and fertiliser. They do not use agrochemicals (such as fertilisers and pesticides), and nurture the soil by maintaining soil fertility and avoiding disruption.

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Spirit of Yorkshire’s history

Spirit of Yorkshire was founded in 2016 with production beginning midway through the year. A combination of copper pot stills and a four-plate column still is used to create the single malt. A visitor centre at the distillery has been open since Easter 2017. The inaugural core product – Filey Bay Flagship – was released in 2019.

Since then, many limited editions and small batch releases have been launched. The brand has won many awards around the world and are one of the leading English single malts as a result. They celebrated becoming just the second English whisky to be listed by a major UK supermarket in May 2025 with the launch of the Waitrose exclusive Regenerative Editions: Nurture.

• How to pronounce Spirit of Yorkshire? spirit-of-york-sheer
• Country: England
• Region: Yorkshire
• Founded: 2016
• Current owners: The Spirit of Yorkshire Ltd
• Production capacity per year: 100,000 litres
• Mash tun: 1 ton
• Washbacks: 3
• Stills: 3 – 2x copper pot, 1x column
• Visitor centre: Yes

Spirit of Yorkshire Distillery
Hunmanby Industrial Estate
Hunmanby
YO14 0PH
tel – +44(0)1723 891758
www.spiritofyorkshire.com

Did you know?

The distillery equipment was supplied by Forsyth’s coppersmiths from Speyside with Tom Mellor and David Thompson assembled it themselves. One highlight of this was Whisky Director Joe Clark having his initial interview with David while the founder was inside the wash still bolting it together.