Highland distillery plan gets go-ahead
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
PLANS for a new visitor centre at a Highland distillery have been approved by Highland Council’s licensing board.
The project at Clynelish Distillery in Brora is part of a £30 million expansion of Diageo’s most northerly Scotch whisky distillery.
The drinks giant is investing around £600 million in its distilleries over six years to meet rising global demand for quality Scotch whisky.
That includes building a brand new £50m distillery adjacent to its Teaninich plant at Alness in a move which will create up to 200 jobs.
It has also invested heavily in its Glen Ord Distillery in Muir of Ord to increase capacity.
At Clynelish, visitor centre services, shop and whisky tastings will continue to be offered in the staff shop while the new visitor facility is being built.
Diageo submitted plans to Highland Council for the major expansion earlier this year.
The site will have an additional mashtun installed for soaking the malted barley. There will also be 10 new washbacks for the fermentation process, and six new copper stills for distilling the spirit.
This adds to the 10 washbacks and six stills which the distillery currently has and will double the production capacity to nine million litres of alcohol per year.
A bio-energy plant is also planned for the site to provide non-fossil fuel energy to power the distillery.
