Old Clynelish Distillery, Sutherland, May 2009

Old Clynelish began in 1819, stopping and starting production every so often like many other distilleries.
A new 6-still distillery was built in the 1960s as 2 stills in the old building couldn't meet demand. It was taken over and re-named Brora after a very dry summer in Islay - the distilleries owned by DCL over there couldn't produce any whisky. It finally closed in 1983.
I've visited before, over 3 years ago, but only got into the still house and took some terrible 'rookie' photos - this time I covered the whole building.






Condensors


Under


One of a series of cut-off stairways.


Still hatches




The stills


From below





Mash tun


Spirit safe


Empty spaces which would have been filled by the washbacks. The rest of the distillery is in quite a poor state compared with the intact still house




Hoppers


These old sliding doors still work almost silently and smoothly. Not bad for 26 years out of use




Boiler


For reasons unknown the floors have been ripped out in this block






Porteous grain elevator


Some very narrow passageways link the blocks

Excellent stuff Lost, looks very peaceful.

this is a great place

26 years empty, people must be more civilized in Sutherland

very nice mate

That's excellent - I went on the public tour of the new Clynelish distillery a couple of years ago, and wondered what the old part was being used for - now I know! Liking the patina on the old stills and the Porteus malting box (pic 20), IIRC there was something v. similar at Imperial.

Gorgeous photos L -that roof is particularly groooovy! Thanks for sharing your snaps

Very nice stuff there Lost, the exterior reminds me of something in Rural France

Ace!!!
Nice to see something new

Great pics, so nice to see an absence of vandalism any bottle of the stuff lying around the place or hidden somewhere ?

wolfism said:

That's excellent - I went on the public tour of the new Clynelish distillery a couple of years ago, and wondered what the old part was being used for - now I know! Liking the patina on the old stills and the Porteus malting box (pic 20), IIRC there was something v. similar at Imperial.

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I really need to find out more about distilleries since I've been in so many disused ones. What is the malting box for?
There is an encased viewing area in the old still house, thought it might have been part of the tour.

The lack of vandalism is pretty normal in the north of Scotland. Shame it's been so heavily vandalised by the owners though - stairs ripped out, floors removed, etc.

Really nice site, Lost. There's a bit of everything there!
Love the condensors and the buildings themselves.
Cheers.

lost said:

What is the malting box for?

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Box maltings were an old-fashioned method to malt the barley - AFAIK, the barley is steeped in water, germinated, then dried in a kiln - after that, it would be ground up in a Porteous mill (like the box at Clynelish in your photo). Now the process has been industrialised and they use huge rotating drums (like the ones at Hillside outside Montrose) or far larger boxes called Saladins.

lost said:

There is an encased viewing area in the old still house, thought it might have been part of the tour.

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From what I remember, you get the obligatory video, free sample, then take a walk through the tun house and still house and finally across the way to see into the bonds which are right beside the old distillery. I do remember that I wasn't allowed to take photos "in case the alcohol vapour was ignited by the camera's electrics". Okay, I won't use flash then. "Still no." Hmm. Are they worried about industrial espionage?

Great looking site, think I might've seen the pics from here, or maybe I'm thinking of another place.

I've been on 2 distillery tours & on both I was told not to take photos for the same reasons.