Scotland’s smallest distillery, Loch Ewe, goes up for sale for around £750k

Scotland’s smallest distillery, Loch Ewe, goes up for sale for around £750k

Scotland's smallest whisky distillery, Loch Ewe, has been put up for sale and the owners believe it could go for as little as £750K.

Loch Ewe distillery, based in Aultbea, went on the market on Monday (September 14th) and is already attracting attention from Japan, America and Europe.

The distillery was opened in 2006 and was a natural progression for the Drumchork Lodge Hotel, which had already won many awards in recognition of the work the staff there were doing to raise awareness of malt whisky. John Clotworthy, who already worked at the hotel, studied distillation at Bladnoch before setting up the distillery in partnership with hotel owner Frances Oates.

Ms Oates said that the Hotel could carry on it’s present form with the distillery running alongside or could be converted to expand the distilling operation and warehouse. She said: “This is the first time a distillery has been offered for sale on the open market and within a day we have had enquiries from people all around the world.

“It’s been in running since 2006 and is unique as it distils entirely by hand using the traditional 18th century methods.

“We produce one cask which is equal to one gallon per distillation.

“The distillery was created to highlight the illicit distilling methods still being used in Wester Ross in the late 20th century.”

It is hoped that any new owners will continue with the traditional methods of hands-on distilling that are currently used.

Loch Ewe is the smallest distillery in Scotland and remains the only distillery to produce single malt from an illicit-sized small still.

Ms Oates believes the distillery could go for around £750,000 but believes it is hard to put an value on Loch Ewe as nothing as unique as the small distillery has ever been out on the market before.

She added: “There’s a niche market to show people how distilling used to be done by hand which is very appealing to people interested in the history of whisky making.

“You can’t buy our whisky anywhere but here. We do a lot of mail orders from all over the world for it and now there is interest in the distillery from around the world too.”

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