Visiting
Go and see one
A gin distillery visit is a different proposition from a whisky one: smaller sites, shorter tours, and a real chance of being shown round by the person who makes it. That also means tiny capacity and a lot of seasonal closing.
Read this before you book anything. The list below is distilleries we believe run a public tour or tasting. We are a directory, not a booking agent — we hold no availability, take no bookings, and have no arrangement with any of them. Opening changes at short notice. Always book direct and check before you travel.
16 distilleries we believe are open to visitors
Dunnet Bay Distillers
Dunnet, Caithness · Highlands
A family distillery on the north coast, a couple of miles from Dunnet Head — the most northerly point on the British mainland. Rock Rose takes its name from the rhodiola rosea that grows on the cliffs there.
ReadBenromach Distillery
Forres, Moray · Speyside & Moray
A Speyside malt distillery at Forres. Red Door is made there in its own still, named after the door on the distillery front.
ReadBruichladdich Distillery
Bruichladdich, Islay · Islands
The Islay malt distillery on the shore of Loch Indaal. The Botanist, launched in 2011, is distilled there in a converted Lomond still and is built on botanicals foraged on Islay itself.
ReadIsle of Harris Distillery
Tarbert, Isle of Harris · Islands
Built at Tarbert as a social enterprise — the point of it was jobs on Harris as much as spirit. The gin uses sugar kelp hand-cut by a local diver from the sea lochs around the island.
ReadTobermory Distillery
Tobermory, Isle of Mull · Islands
On the waterfront at Tobermory, behind the painted houses. One of the oldest commercial distilleries in Scotland, and now making gin as well as malt.
ReadDeerness Distillery
Newark, Orkney · Islands
A family distillery on the east mainland of Orkney, a few fields from the sea. Sea Glass is named after what washes up on the beach below.
ReadOrkney Distilling
Kirkwall, Orkney · Islands
On the Ayre Road at Kirkwall harbour, with a visitor centre looking out over the water. Kirkjuvagr is the old Norse name for Kirkwall.
ReadIsle of Raasay Distillery
Isle of Raasay · Islands
Raasay’s first legal distillery, on a small island off Skye with a population in the low hundreds, with rooms above it looking across the Sound.
ReadEden Mill
St Andrews, Fife · Fife
On the Eden estuary outside St Andrews, on the site of an old brewery and paper mill. One of the earlier names in the modern Scottish gin run.
ReadKingsbarns Distillery
Kingsbarns, Fife · Fife
In a converted farm steading in the East Neuk, where Darnley’s is distilled in its own gin still alongside the Lowland malt.
ReadEdinburgh Gin Distillery
Edinburgh · Edinburgh & the Lothians
Now housed in restored Victorian railway arches near Waverley, with a distillery, bar and tours under the one roof. One of the names that started the modern Scottish gin run.
ReadSummerhall Distillery
Summerhall, Edinburgh · Edinburgh & the Lothians
In the old Royal (Dick) Veterinary School at Summerhall — the first exclusively gin distillery in Edinburgh for a very long time, working from a recipe written out in Bombay in 1947.
ReadPort of Leith Distillery
Leith, Edinburgh · Edinburgh & the Lothians
The vertical distillery on the Leith shore. Lind & Lime is named for James Lind, the Edinburgh naval surgeon whose 1747 trial established that citrus prevented scurvy.
ReadHolyrood Distillery
Edinburgh · Edinburgh & the Lothians
In a restored 1830s railway goods shed under Salisbury Crags, the first single malt distillery in central Edinburgh in nearly a century, making gin alongside the whisky.
ReadThe Borders Distillery
Hawick, Scottish Borders · Borders & the South West
The first legal distillery in the Scottish Borders since 1837, in a restored Victorian electrical works in Hawick.
ReadGalloway Distillery
Newton Stewart, Galloway · Borders & the South West
A purpose-built distillery outside Newton Stewart, making its own base spirit from Scottish wheat and using noble fir needles gathered in the Galloway forest. It traded as Crafty Distillery until it took the Galloway name.
ReadFour things that catch people out
Book, and book early. Most of these run tours at fixed times for eight or twelve people. A small island distillery may run one a day, or none at all in February.
The drink-drive limit. Scotland’s limit is lower than the one in England and Wales, and a tasting flight at the end of a tour will put most people over it. Say when you book that you’re driving — every distillery is used to it and most will send the measures home with you instead. Two distilleries in a day only works if somebody isn’t drinking, or if you’ve picked two in the same city.
On islands, the ferry is the constraint. Car space on the popular summer crossings goes weeks ahead, and a cancelled sailing rearranges the whole trip. Build in slack, and don’t make the distillery the thing the day depends on.
Edinburgh is the easy answer. Several working distilleries inside the city, most with a bar attached, all reachable on foot or a short bus. If you want to see three Scottish gins made in a day, that’s where to do it.