VisitingSpeyburn is not open to the public. Whisky Cyclist visited during the Spirit of Speyside Festival 2013.
Vital Stats
During the late 19th century building boom, Speyburn was built in the quiet valley of the Granty Burn (or Broad Burn), alongside the Elgin to Rothes railway, which had been built nearly 40 years before, by John Hopkins & Co, who already owned Tobermory Distillery on Mull. They are desperate to start distilling in 1897 (Diamond Jubilee year), but building is behind schedule and when they start up the stills there are more problems. Eventually a single butt is filled on 31 December, in a still room without windows, in the middle of a snow storm.
Speyburn was the first distillery to use drum maltings, rather than floor maltings - largely due to constraints on space - the site is smaller than most, and was designed by Charles Doig, the man behind the pagoda roof. The maltings were used until 1968, and though no longer in use, they have been preserved. As with most distilleries now, malting is done off site. John Hopkins & Co was bought by Diageo predecessor DCL in 1916, who in turn sold it on to Inver House in 1991. In 2014, Inver House embarked on an expansion programme for Speyburn, which saw the existing wash still altered to replicate the existing spirit still, and a single larger wash still, which charges both spirit stills at the same time was installed - together with increasing the washbacks from 6 to 19, this enabled the distillery to more than double its capacity. Malt Madness Wikipedia WhiskyMerchants.co.uk scotchwhisky.com |
Getting ThereClick the Google logo on the above map to access Street View, Directions etc.
Open Cycle Map Bing Map Glen Grant Coleburn Glen Spey Auchroisk Distilleries Speyside Spey Nearest National Rail stations are Elgin (ELG) (10 miles) or Keith (KEH) (12). Live train times: ELG, KEH. Speyburn is off the B9015, North Street, heading out of Rothes towards Mosstodloch, past the Dark Grains Plant and the remains of the railway bridge. RangeSpeyburn's core bottling for many years was the 10yo (40%), but they added an NAS whisky - Bradan Orach (Golden Salmon) (40%) to their range a few years ago and in 2017 a 15yo (46%). There are two more NAS bottles advertised on the website, exclusive to USA.
A few independent bottlings can also be found. RMW TWE MoM CyclingNearest Bike shops - Elgin
Bikes and Bowls 7 High Street, Elgin 01343 549656 Halfords Lossie Wynd N, Elgin 01343 552030 Charlie Millett Dufftown 01340 820991 Not a shop - has a page on the Dufftown.net website - provides repairs and spares - assisted Whisky Cyclist in 2014 when stranded in Craigellachie with damaged tyre. Bikespokes Forres 07801 365710 @ Van based mobile servicing & repairs - normally 25 miles radius from Forres, but will travel further for an extra charge |
Photos on this page were taken by me. Click on photo to enlarge. Full size versions of all my photos of Speyburn Distillery are available on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157628459827015/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martynjenkins/sets/72157628459827015/