Distillery Visit - Arran

I visited the Arran distillery in April '18, this was my first time!

Arran is just outside Lochranza at the northern end of the Isle Of Arran, you'll need to catch a ferry to get there, which is exactly what we did from Claonaig on Kintyre.

The Arran distillery was built in 1994 by a former director of Chivas called Harold Currie,  the first spirit flowing in June 1995,

Arran produce a range of aged, NAS and limit edition malts and blends.

Peated and unpeated malted barley is imported on to the island.

Hot water is mixed with it in the Mash tun

Mash tun rakes

The wort is fermented in one of 6 large wooden washbacks...

...and then stored in a Brewing Tank ready for distillation

The whole process is computerised and can be operated by 1 person.

Oregon Pine Washbacks

2 Wash Stills and 2 Spirit Stills

Gleaming stills

The Spirit Safe

The new make spirit is then casked and stored at the on-site warehouse but that isn't included in the tour. The whisky is bottled on the mainland.

Thanks to Gerard and the team for the tour!

Arran have started work on a second distillery ayt the south end of the island near Lagg which will concentrate on peated malts. But due to the huge number of potholes I decided to turn around half way and didn't get to visot the site.

Here's my road trip video: