Macduff

Owner.. John dewar & sons ltd.
Founded.. 1962.
Region.. Highlands.
Capacity.. 3 340 000
Tel.. 01261 812612
Web..

The distillery itself is located within the old ‘policies’ of Duff House and its vast surrounding estate. The grand 17th century mansion house was commissioned by James Duff, the 2nd Earl of Fife. A 15-acre plot of land, originally the site of the stately home’s gardens and orchards, was eventually made available for the distillery’s construction. Today Duff House can still be seen from the distillery manager’s window. A comparatively modern distillery – its spirit rst began to ow in 1960 – MacDuff was brought into being mainly for the purpose of supplying malt whisky to the blending industry. It was commissioned by a consortium of four businessmen, namely Brodie Hepburn, Morty Dykes, James Stirrat and George Crawford, who called themselves Glen Deveron Distillers Ltd. Having purchased the land, they used their business connections to build and establish their new endeavour. Designed by William Delmé-Evans, a distillery architect at the forefront of Scotland’s whisky revival of the time, Macduff was state of the art when it opened. The innovative design of its buildings and equipment differed from previous norms and paved the way for a number of revolutionary features. It was one of the rst distilleries to be built without facilities for on-site malting and the ffirst to start condensing the spirit in shell and tube heat exchangers, rather than old-fashioned worm tubs. A modern-day metal mash tun was also introduced, while in the still house the use of steam coils to heat the stills was adopted for extra ef ciency. In short, several production methods made their first appearance at Macduff distillery, which played an important role in the modernisation of the Scotch whisky industry.