VisitingNot open for visits normally - as with other Chivas distilleries that are not open to the public, the distillery doesn't have a website.
I visited Longmorn during the Spirit of Speyside Festival in May 2008. The larger pictures on this page date from then. Vital Stats
Longmorn founder John Duff, had managed Glendronach and formed a company that founded Glenlossie Distillery, then tried unsuccessfully to establish distilleries in South Africa and the USA. Longmorn was an ideal place for a new distillery - next to the Great North of Scotland railway, for transportation, a good water supply, barley from the Laich of Moray and peat from Mannoch Hill. Power for the distillery was provided by a large water wheel. The proximity of the railway seems to have been relied upon initially, but a siding into the distillery itself was built later, as shown on these maps.
Duff was doing well enough to build a second distillery (initially known as Longmorn II, now BenRiach) next door - but very soon the Pattison ** scandal had hit the whisky industry and he went bankrupt. The distillery was sold to a James R Grant (there were a lot of Grants in the Speyside area - this family became known as the Longmorn Grants); and an Edinburgh blender, Hill, Thomson, who favoured Longmorn in their Queen Anne and Something Special blends. Under the new ownership the distillery prospered, particularly popular as a top dressing for many deluxe blended whiskies. In 1919 Masakata Taketsuru began an apprenticeship at Longmorn distillery - he subsequently worked at other Scottish distilleries before returning to Japan and establishing the Yamazaki Distillery for Suntory - he later established his own company, Nikka and built the Yoichi DIstillery. In 1970 the Grant family & Hill, Thomson merged with The Glenlivet and Glen Grant distilleries to form Glenlivet Distilleries Ltd, that was bought by Seagram in 1977, owners of Chivas since 1948. In 2001 Seagram were bought by Pernod Ricard and Diageo - the Chivas business, including Longmorn, going to Pernod. The distillery was expanded from 4 stills to 6 in 1972 and to 8 in 1974 when the former filling store was converted to take four spirit stills. ** I originally had a link to a SMWS article on this, but that has disappeared since the re-design of the SMWS website, the above link is to a short piece on wikipedia, for a more in depth look at ths important episode in whisky history, see the glenlochy.com website. MaltMadness whiskymerchants.co.uk Wikipedia scotchwhisky.com SMWS |
Getting ThereClick on the Google logo above for access to Street View, Directions etc
Open Cycle Map Bing Map Glenlossie Benriach Glen Elgin Speyburn Distilleries Speyside Distilleries Lossie Nearest station is Elgin (ELG) (2.5 miles) Live Train Times. Longmorn Distillery is two miles south of Elgin off the road (A941) to Rothes (8 miles). The track beyond the Distillery past Longmorn House is just about passable by bike. While there is a path on the Northern part of the old railway from Elgin, it is not continuous as far as the distillery. If your bike's laid up, there's a bus stop at the end of the road. RangeLongmorn's 16yo at 48%, which replaced the 45% 15yo in 2007 - with a price hike and fancy bottle, was itself replaced, but has now been re-introduced. There is also an NAS Distiller's Choice at 40%, and a 23yo at 48% has been released in 2017.
Gordon & MacPhail produce a 2002 and 2003 vintages in their Distillery Label range - as well as some older ones, and there are various other independent bottlings, including regular releases from SMWS. Something Special (featured in the 2004 picture, below left) is a Deluxe Blend based on Longmorn - mainly for export, though TWE do have some available. RMW TWE MoM CyclingNearest Bike shops - Elgin:
Bikes and Bowls 7 High Street, Elgin 01343 549656 Halfords Lossie Wynd N, Elgin 01343 552030 |
Photos on this page were taken by me. Click on photo to enlarge. Full size versions of all my photos of Longmorn Distillery are available on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157627525822652/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157627525822652/