Ardmore Distillery, Kennethmont: Aberdeenshire’s Peated Malt

Overview

Ardmore is the big peated malt of the eastern Highlands. It sits at Kennethmont, in the farmland of Strathbogie in west Aberdeenshire. It was built in 1898 by the Glasgow blending family Teacher to supply their famous Teacher’s Highland Cream, and it is still the heart of that blend today. Most mainland distilleries gave up peated malt long ago, but Ardmore never did. Its smoky, robust spirit is one of the most distinctive in the north-east. Until 2001 its stills were still heated by direct coal fires.

It is not open to the public, but the area around it is well worth a day: Gordon castles, Pictish stones, the hill of Bennachie and the gardens at Leith Hall.

Where it is

Ardmore stands beside the Aberdeen–Inverness railway at Kennethmont, a small village between Huntly (about 8 miles north-west) and Insch (about 5 miles east). Aberdeen is about 35 miles away, under an hour by the A96. The railway is the reason it is here. The Teachers chose a site with a line straight to their blending halls in Glasgow, and the distillery once had its own siding.

The full history

The Teachers of Glasgow

William Teacher began as a Glasgow grocer and spirit dealer in the 1830s. He built a chain of licensed “dram shops” and then a blending business. By the 1880s the firm’s Highland Cream was one of Scotland’s best-known blends. Like every blender, the Teachers worried about securing enough good malt. Their answer was to build their own distillery.

1898: Adam Teacher builds Ardmore

William’s son Adam Teacher found the site on farmland at Kennethmont, with good water from the springs of Knockandy Hill, local barley, peat from the Aberdeenshire mosses and the railway at the gate. Ardmore was completed in 1898, at the height of the Victorian whisky boom. It was the only distillery the Teacher family ever built, and from the start its job was to give Highland Cream its smoky backbone.

Growth and change

Ardmore grew with the blend. Two more stills were added in 1955 and four more in 1974, giving eight in all. It malted its own barley until the mid-1970s and ran its own cooperage until the late 1980s. Its stills were fired directly with coal until 2001, among the last in Scotland to be heated that way, before it switched to steam heating. The Teacher business was absorbed into Allied Distillers (later Allied Domecq) in 1976. In 2005 it passed to Fortune Brands / Beam, then in 2014 to Beam Suntory, now Suntory Global Spirits.

A single malt at last

Ardmore was mostly a blending malt until 2007, when Ardmore Traditional Cask came out at 46%, matured partly in small quarter casks. In 2014 it was replaced by Legacy, at 40% and chill-filtered. Enthusiasts complained, and in 2015 the original style returned as Tradition, at 46% and barrier-filtered. Today’s range also includes Triple Wood, a 12-year-old Port Wood Finish and a 25-year-old.

How it’s made

ArdmoreArdmore uses peated malt, mostly heavily peated, to give its signature smoke, along with some unpeated malt for other uses.rsquo;s signature is peated malt, which gives the spirit its smoke. Its eight stills, four wash and four spirit, make it one of the larger distilleries in the region. Process water comes from about fifteen springs on Knockandy Hill. The result is a smoky, earthy, slightly sweet malt. Unlike Islay smoke, it is drier and more like a peat fire in a farmhouse hearth.

Clans & the land

Ardmore was built by blenders, not a clan. Strathbogie, though, is one of the great clan landscapes of the north-east:

• The Gordons. Huntly, 8 miles away, was the seat of the Gordon Earls and later Marquesses of Huntly, the “Cock o’ the North”. Huntly Castle, with its carved heraldic frontage, is one of the finest ruins in Scotland. The Gordons’ rivalry with the crown ended in defeat at the Battle of Corrichie in 1562.
• The Leith-Hays of Leith Hall. Just south of Kennethmont stands Leith Hall, home of the Leith and Leith-Hay family for three centuries. It is now cared for by the National Trust for Scotland and has fine gardens.
• Harlaw, 1411. Twenty miles east, near Inverurie, Donald, Lord of the Isles, led a Highland army against the Earl of Mar and the north-east gentry at the Battle of Harlaw, known as “Red Harlaw”, one of the bloodiest battles in Scottish history.

Stones, hills & churches

The Garioch, the farmland around Insch and Inverurie, is one of the richest areas in Scotland for Pictish and prehistoric stones:

• The Newton Stone, near Insch, carries a mysterious inscription that has puzzled scholars for two centuries.
• The Maiden Stone, at Chapel of Garioch, is a tall Pictish cross-slab below Bennachie.
• The Brandsbutt Stone, in Inverurie, is a Pictish symbol stone with an ogham inscription.
• The East Aquhorthies recumbent stone circle, near Inverurie, is one of the best preserved in the north-east.
• The Picardy Stone and the Dunnideer hillfort, with its ruined tower, stand just outside Insch.
• Bennachie is the much-loved hill of the Garioch. Its Mither Tap summit has an Iron Age fort and views over the whole country.

There are no lochs of note here; this is river and farm country, drained by the Bogie and the Urie. For the lochs, head west to Speyside or see our lochs guide. For more stones, see the standing stones guide.

Visiting

Ardmore is a production-only site with no visitor centre and no public tours. The nearest distillery you can visit is GlenDronach, about half an hour north. Our North-East Whisky Trail also covers Glen Garioch at Oldmeldrum and the Speyside towns to the west.

Nearby distilleries

• GlenDronach, Forgue (about 15 miles): sherried Highland malt with tours.
• Knockdhu (anCnoc), Knock (about 18 miles).
• Strathisla, Keith (about 20 miles): one of the prettiest distilleries in Scotland.
• Glen Garioch, Oldmeldrum (about 22 miles): one of Scotland’s oldest.
• Glenfiddich and the Dufftown distilleries (about 20 miles west).

The whisky hub covers every region.

Sources

• Ardmore distillery — Wikipedia.
• Ardmore Whisky, official site.
• National Trust for Scotland (Leith Hall); Historic Environment Scotland (Huntly Castle).