Isle of Raasay Distillery: The Island’s First Legal Whisky

Overview

The Isle of Raasay distillery, on the small, dramatic island between Skye and the mainland, is the first legal distillery Raasay has ever had. Opened in 2017 beside the Victorian Borodale House, it makes a lightly-peated, spicy, dark-fruited single malt, and has become a model of the modern small island distillery — you can even stay the night above it.

The history

Raasay had no legal distillery in its long history until R&B Distillers opened this one in 2017, converting and extending the old Borodale House. Its first single malt was released in 2020. Small, community-minded and experimental — growing some of its own barley on the island — it is a good example of how the new wave of distilleries is bringing whisky-making back to places that never had it.

The water & the land

Raasay’s water is Tobar na Ba Bàine, the “well of the pale cow” — an ancient spring, plus a borehole, at Borodale — where rain falling on the island’s flat-topped peak Dùn Caan filters through volcanic rock and Jurassic sandstone to give hard, mineral-rich water.

Raasay carries a real clan story: Borodale House and the island were for centuries the domain of the MacLeods of Raasay, who backed the Jacobite cause in 1745 — Bonnie Prince Charlie sheltered on the island in his flight — and held it until chief John MacLeod sold up and emigrated to Tasmania in the 1840s during the hard years of the Clearances.

Visiting

Raasay runs tours of around an hour, timed to the Skye–Raasay ferry, which should be booked; it opens year-round, ferry permitting, and even offers stylish accommodation above the distillery. Check the website and plan around the short crossing from Sconser on Skye.

Nearby & more whisky

• Across the water on Skye: Talisker
• Skye’s second distillery: Torabhaig
• The whole picture: Scotch whisky — regions, distilleries & the oldest of all

Sources

• Isle of Raasay distillery — Wikipedia.
• Raasay Distillery / R&B Distillers.