Glen Garioch Distillery, Oldmeldrum: One of Scotland’s Oldest

Overview

Glen Garioch (say glen GEE-ree) has made whisky in Oldmeldrum since 1797, which puts it among the oldest working distilleries in Scotland. The town sits in the Garioch, a fertile farming district north-west of Aberdeen long known for its barley. The malt is bottled non-chill-filtered, in small batches, and is fuller and maltier than most Speysiders, with honey and a little spice. The core range includes the 12-year-old and Founder’s Reserve.

Where it is

The distillery stands on Distillery Road in the middle of Oldmeldrum, about 18 miles north-west of Aberdeen and 5 miles north of Inverurie. Around Inverurie are the Easter Aquhorthies recumbent stone circle, the Pictish Brandsbutt Stone and the site of the Battle of Harlaw (1411). The Maiden Stone stands below Bennachie to the west.

Address: Glen Garioch Distillery, Distillery Road, Oldmeldrum AB51 0ES.

The full history

1797: the Mansons

Most accounts credit John Manson, who founded the distillery aged 27 in 1797; his brother Alexander joined a few years later. Manson’s son, also John, came into the business in 1837 and later ran it. (Some histories name a Thomas Simpson as the first owner, so the early record is not fully settled.)

Sanderson and VAT 69

In 1884 the Mansons sold to J.G. Thompson & Co., Leith wine merchants. The Leith blender William Sanderson bought into the business, and much of Glen Garioch’s spirit went into his VAT 69 blend. Sanderson’s firm merged with Booth’s Distillers in 1933 and joined the Distillers Company (DCL) in 1937. Production stopped during the Second World War and stayed low afterwards under barley rationing.

1968–1997: Morrison, the Silent Spring and closure

DCL mothballed Glen Garioch in 1968, blaming chronic water shortages. Stanley P. Morrison, owner of Bowmore, bought it in 1970. In 1972 a new water source, the Silent Spring on neighbouring Coutens Farm, was found. The distillery was largely rebuilt in 1973 and relaunched as a single malt. In the 1980s it ran a greenhouse heated by the distillery, and showed a mini-distillery and greenhouse at the 1988 Glasgow Garden Festival; the greenhouse project was dropped in 1993. Morrison Bowmore came fully under Suntory ownership in the 1990s. Its own maltings closed in 1993, the distillery was mothballed in October 1995, and it reopened in 1997.

The modern malt

Older Glen Garioch was noticeably peated; the spirit made since the 1997 reopening is unpeated. A run of vintage single-cask and single-batch releases (1978, 1986, 1990, 1991 and others) followed. Virgin Oak arrived in 2013. Owner Beam Suntory renamed itself Suntory Global Spirits in 2024.

How it’s made

Glen Garioch is small, with a capacity of about 1 million litres a year. It has two wash stills (one of 20,000 litres and a smaller one of 10,000 litres) and two spirit stills of 11,000 litres each. The stills were fired directly by gas until about 1993, when they were changed to steam coils and pans. A second small wash still removed during the 1990s closure now stands outside Auchentoshan’s visitor centre. Water comes from the Silent Spring at Coutens Farm. The distillery sometimes pauses production for maintenance in a “Silent Season”, but tours still run.

Clans & the land

The distillery had no founding clan. The Garioch, though, was the heartland of the Leslies, whose seat at Balquhain lay west of Inverurie, and Harlaw nearby saw one of the bloodiest clan battles in the north-east. The district is rich in recumbent stone circles and Pictish stones. See our clans guide.

Visiting

The visitor centre opens daily: 11am–4pm in January and February, 10am–4pm from March to June and September to Christmas, and 10am–5pm in July and August. It closes on 25–26 December, 1–2 January and 2 November. A guided tour with a tutored tasting runs several times a day, and a longer warehouse tasting lets you try whisky drawn straight from the cask. Book ahead on glengarioch.com, as times can change.

Nearby distilleries

• GlenDronach: near Huntly, about 25 miles north-west, famous for sherry casks.
• Ardmore: at Kennethmont, home of Teacher’s peated malt.
• Knockdhu (anCnoc) and Macduff: further north towards the Banff coast.

Our Heritage Whisky Trail links these together. The whisky hub covers every region in Scotland.

Sources

• Glen Garioch distillery — Wikipedia.
• Difford’s Guide — Glen Garioch history.
• Glen Garioch — Visit (opening hours, checked Oct 2026).