THE first single estate distillery in Scotland which has just begun production is centre-stage in a campaign to highlight how landowners can play a key role in delivering benefit to rural areas.
Today Scottish Land & Estates launches its Helping it Happen campaign to demonstrate that landowners and estates far from being "detached and remote" from their communities, are committed to enabling local communities and businesses across a range of sectors.
The landowners' organisation presents the distillery as a prime example. It is on the estate of Ballindalloch Castle in Banffshire, near where the Spey and Avon rivers meet, which the forebears of today's Macpherson-Grant family were calling home in the 16th century.
Ballindalloch Distillery began production in September and is the culmination of nearly three years of planning, renovation, repair and construction.
Located in a farm steading dating back to the 1820s, the distillery represents the return to whisky making for the Macpherson- Grants.
The project is supported by a grant of up to £1.27 million from the Scottish Government.
Guy Macpherson-Grant, of Ballindalloch Estate, said: "Sitting in the heart of Speyside, the whisky industry is vital to the local economy in terms of jobs and investment.
"Although many will associate our family name with the distillery, it has been a real community effort. The estate has facilitated the project but the partnership between the estate and the community has brought real benefits to both, and it is one that will continue in future months and years. "
The distillery directly employs three people.
David Johnstone, chairman of Scottish Land & Estates, said: "People who have the interests of rural Scotland at heart know that the best way to achieve vibrant and successful communities is to work together towards common goals."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article