The Cabrach Distillery: A Community Revives an Old Smuggling Land
The Cabrach at a glance
| Region | Highland/Speyside border (The Cabrach, Moray) |
| Founded | 2024 |
| Owner | The Cabrach Trust (community) |
| Visitor centre | Yes — heritage centre & café |
| Tours | Heritage & distillery tours (phased) |
| Opening | Open (phased since 2024), booking — check the website |
| Website | cabrachtrust.org |
Overview
The Cabrach Distillery, in the remote uplands on the Moray/Aberdeenshire border, is a community distillery with a mission: to revive a district that was once the illicit-whisky heartland of the north, and whose population all but vanished. Run by the Cabrach Trust, it pairs a working distillery with a heritage centre telling the story of the smuggling era.
The history
The Cabrach was famous in the 18th and 19th centuries for its illicit stills, the smugglers’ whisky carried out over the hills to the towns. Depopulated and long silent, the district got its distillery back when the Cabrach Trust opened a heritage centre and distillery in 2024, aiming to bring life and jobs back to the glen.
The water & the land
The Cabrach draws on local hill water at Inverharroch Farm, in the upper Deveron catchment (the exact named source is not yet published).
The Cabrach had no founding clan in the usual sense, but the district was historic Gordon (Dukes of Gordon) country — wild upland ground that made it perfect for the illicit distillers it now commemorates.
How it’s made — and who owns it
The Cabrach is unlike any other Scotch distillery in one respect: it belongs to its community. It is run by The Cabrach Trust, a Scottish charity founded in 2011 (SC043771) whose masterplan aims to regenerate the glen through jobs, heritage and visitors, with the distillery and heritage centre at its heart. The Trust’s still-house details — still sizes, capacity and cask policy — aren’t published on the pages we could reach, so we haven’t guessed at them. What is public is the momentum: in September 2026 the Trust’s Hairst Weekend welcomed more than 70 visitors and honoured Alan Winchester for his contribution to the distillery.
Visiting
The Cabrach has a heritage centre and café, with distillery tours phased in since 2024 — booking advised; check the website. Its remoteness is the point — this is the real smuggling country of Scotch legend.
Nearby & more whisky
- Down into whisky-town Speyside, about ten miles north: Dufftown and its seven distilleries, including Glenfiddich and Mortlach.
- The other great smuggling glen, to the west: The Glenlivet — with its own 1594 battle in the hills.
- Also in these uplands: Tomintoul, tours on set weekdays.
- Planning a day of it? Our Speyside Whisky Trail covers this as one of its spurs — the high glens, the smuggling country and the Moray coast.
- The whole picture: Scotch whisky — regions, distilleries & the oldest of all
Sources
- The Cabrach Trust; Whisky Magazine.