The Scotch Distillery Trail
Speyside, Islay and the islands, and what each region actually tastes like. 22 places, mapped and ready to build a trip around.
Plan a trip on Trailwind →Springbank
Campbeltown · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate39–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishThe last distillery doing every stage on site, in a town that once had over thirty.
Clynelish
Highlands · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate36–61°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishWaxy, coastal Sutherland malt, and a cult backbone of blended Johnnie Walker.
Glenmorangie
Highlands · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate34–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishThe tallest stills in Scotland, at roughly the height of a giraffe, which is the point of the house style.
Oban
Highlands · ScotlandEst. 1794BestMay–SepClimate37–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishBuilt in 1794 before the town grew around it, wedged between a cliff and the harbour.
The Dalmore
Highlands · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate36–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishOn the Cromarty Firth, known for long sherry finishes and the stag emblem on every bottle.
Ardbeg
Islay · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate41–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishThe peatiest of the Kildalton three, and the one with the most devoted following.
Bowmore
Islay · ScotlandEst. 1779BestMay–SepClimate39–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishIslay's oldest, founded 1779, with the No.1 Vaults warehouse below sea level on the loch.
Bruichladdich
Islay · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate41–61°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishReopened in 2001 with Victorian equipment intact, and the most experimental producer on the island.
Bunnahabhain
Islay · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate39–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishThe gentle, largely unpeated Islay, at the end of a single-track road with a view to Jura.
Caol Ila
Islay · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate39–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishA still house glazed floor to ceiling looking straight across the Sound of Islay at the Paps of Jura.
Kilchoman
Islay · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate41–61°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishA working farm distillery, growing, malting, distilling and bottling on the same ground.
Lagavulin
Islay · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate39–61°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishSlow distillation in a bay beside the ruins of Dunyvaig Castle. Smoke, iodine and sixteen years.
Laphroaig
Islay · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate39–61°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishMedicinal, divisive and still malting its own barley. Buy a square foot of the peat bog and collect the rent in whisky.
Talisker
Isle of Skye · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate37–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishSkye's only distillery for two centuries, on the shore at Carbost under the Cuillin.
Auchentoshan
Lowlands · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate36–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishTriple distilled, which is a Lowland signature, and light enough to be the usual gateway malt.
Glenkinchie
Lowlands · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate34–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishTwenty minutes from Edinburgh in farmland, with a beautiful scale model of the distillery from 1924.
Aberlour
Speyside · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate36–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishOn the Spey beside the Lour burn, and one of the better tastings for understanding sherry versus bourbon casks.
Glenfarclas
Speyside · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate34–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishSix generations of the Grant family, the largest stills in Speyside, and a famously deep back catalogue.
Glenfiddich
Speyside · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate36–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishStill family-owned, still with its own coopers and coppersmiths on site, and the world's best-selling single malt.
The Balvenie
Speyside · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate36–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishOne of the very few that still grows its own barley, malts on its own floor and keeps a working cooperage.
The Glenlivet
Speyside · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate32–63°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishThe first licensed distillery in the parish in 1824, in a glen that had been a smuggling stronghold.
The Macallan
Speyside · ScotlandBestMay–SepClimate36–64°FCurrencyGBPLanguageEnglishSherry-cask Speyside, in a distillery buried under a wave-form green roof that is worth the visit on its own.