Lagg Distillery, Arran: The Island’s Peated Sister

Overview

Lagg, at Kilmory on the southern end of the Isle of Arran, is the island’s second, peated distillery — the smoky sister to unpeated Lochranza in the north. Opened in 2019 in a striking modern building near the sea, it makes a peated, coastal Arran malt, reviving the heavily-peated style the island’s illicit distillers were once known for.

The history

Lagg was built and opened in 2019 by Isle of Arran Distillers, whose Lochranza distillery had grown so successful that a second was needed — and they chose to dedicate it entirely to peated whisky, giving Arran a full range across both styles. Its first bottlings have been well received, and it has quickly become a fixture of the island’s south.

The water & the land

Lagg draws on the distillery’s own on-site borehole at Kilmory (an occasional claim that it uses Loch na Davie conflicts with the distillery’s own account, so we’ll stick with the borehole). Heavily-peated malt gives it its smoky, maritime character.

As a brand-new distillery, Lagg has no clan history of its own, but it shares Arran’s past: the island was the land of the Hamilton family, the Dukes of Hamilton, seated at Brodick Castle. Kilmory sits in a green, gentle corner of the island rich in prehistoric standing stones and cairns.

Visiting

Lagg has a visitor centre with a whisky bar and café, and runs tours and tastings — check ahead for current times, as hours are seasonal; the website has the latest. It pairs naturally with Lochranza for a full circuit of Arran’s whisky.

Nearby & more whisky

• Arran’s original distillery: Lochranza (Arran)
• Islands — the region overview
• The whole picture: Scotch whisky — regions, distilleries & the oldest of all

Sources

• Lagg distillery — Whisky.com.
• Isle of Arran Distillers.