A £3.6 MILLION malt whisky distillery is planned for a former engine shed in the cobbled streets of the Scottish capital.
The Holyrood Park Distillery at St Leonard’s Lane will be Edinburgh’s first single malt whisky distillery since Glen Sciennes closed in the 1920s.
David Robertson, project lead of the Holyrood Park Distillery, said it will initially produce only 53,000 litres of alcohol per year, with about 140,000 bottles of mature single malt in eight to 12 years’ time.
The Holyrood Park Distillery will also employ about 25 staff at varying levels, from trainees up to experienced distillery operators and tourism and production managers once it starts distilling in 2017, if approved.
Mr Robertson, former master distiller for The Macallan, said: “We are very excited by the prospect of resurrecting the proud tradition of distilling single malt whisky in Edinburgh.
“We have submitted plans which outline our vision to bring single malt whisky distilling back to Edinburgh and have worked closely with local residents and businesses to build a proposal that we hope will benefit the local community as well as Edinburgh as a whole.
“Our vision is to create beautiful, hand-crafted spirits and the engine shed building is the ideal location for us to realise this ambition.”
He added: “With its history dating back to the 1830s, it will provide a fantastic home for us to create a small, but world-class distillery and tourist destination of which Edinburgh can be proud.”
The distillery will have an education facility as a community and school resource and there are hopes for a weekend market in the courtyard.
Nearby Glen Sciennes was the last single malt whisky distillery to operate in Edinburgh.
The distillery’s maltings were sited near the engine shed before its closure in 1925 and later demolition.
Following the move by Edinburgh City Council to enter into a lease with the Holyrood Park Distillery in August last year, the team behind the development said it has held consultations with residents and businesses to shape plans and it has “taken neighbours’ feedback on board in the final proposals” now submitted to planners.
In the late 1700s, the capital had eight licensed distilleries and it is estimated that there may have been as many as 400 illegal stills. Urban production fell out of fashion but is currently enjoying a boom, with distilleries popping up in cities such as New York and London.
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland 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