GlenWyvis Distillery, Dingwall: The Community-Owned Malt

Overview

GlenWyvis, on the hill above Dingwall, was the world’s first community-owned distillery. Thousands of local people and whisky lovers bought shares to bring distilling back to a town that had lost its last distillery in 1926. It produced its first spirit on St Andrew’s Day 2017, ran on renewable energy, and grew to around 4,000 members, the largest Community Benefit Society in the UK by membership.

Latest news (October 2026): GlenWyvis Distillery entered administration on 5 October 2026, with Interpath appointed as administrators. Distilling has stopped, the three remaining staff have been made redundant, and the whisky stocks and equipment are being secured for a possible sale. The administrators blamed a long period of financial pressure, a weak whisky market, rising costs and failed fundraising. Private cask owners are being contacted directly. We’ll update this page as the story develops.

Where it is

The distillery stands at Upper Docharty, on the farmland above Dingwall, the county town of Ross-shire, looking out to Ben Wyvis, the great whale-backed mountain that gives it its name. Dingwall is at the head of the Cromarty Firth, about 14 miles north-west of Inverness, around 25 minutes by the A9 and A835.

The full history

Ferintosh: the tax-free whisky

Dingwall’s whisky story starts with one of the strangest privileges in Scottish history. In 1689, Jacobite troops wrecked the distillery of Duncan Forbes of Culloden at Ferintosh, on the edge of the Black Isle a few miles south, because he supported William of Orange. In 1690 parliament compensated him with the right to distil whisky from his own barley free of duty. Ferintosh grew into a small industry, and its name became a byword for whisky itself. Robert Burns mourned the loss when the privilege was finally withdrawn in 1784: “Thee, Ferintosh! O sadly lost!”

Ben Wyvis and the last Dingwall distillery

Victorian Dingwall had its own distillery, opened in 1879 as Ben Wyvis and later renamed Ferintosh, after the old tax-free name. It survived into the 20th century but closed in 1926, a victim of post-war slump and American Prohibition. (A later, short-lived Ben Wyvis distillery at Invergordon in the 1960s–70s was a different place. Its old stills now work at Glengyle in Campbeltown.) For ninety years Dingwall made no whisky.

2015–2017: a community distillery

The revival was led by John McKenzie, a local farmer and pilot, who wanted a distillery owned by the town rather than a corporation. The project used only local barley from a farmers’ cooperative. A community share offer, run through Crowdfunder in 2016, raised more than £2.5 million from thousands of investors. GlenWyvis was set up as a Community Benefit Society, so its profits were to benefit the area. Building began in early 2017, and the first spirit flowed from the copper pot stills on 30 November 2017, St Andrew’s Day. A further share offer in 2017 paid for a gin still and a sales team.

Releases and difficulties

GlenWyvis gin came first, and the inaugural single malt, the first whisky made in Dingwall for nearly a century, was released once the spirit came of age. The distillery ran on renewable energy and held regular open days for its shareholders. A small distillery owned by thousands of people is hard to run, though. Disputes, rising costs and a difficult whisky market put it under growing financial pressure, and in October 2026 it entered administration.

Clans & the land

Dingwall is the old capital of Ross, and its history is a clan history:

• The Earls of Ross held Dingwall Castle, now almost gone, as their chief seat. The town’s name comes from the Norse thing-völlr, “field of the parliament”. See Clan Ross.
• Clan Mackenzie, the Earls of Seaforth, became the dominant power here. Their seat at Brahan Castle, 3 miles away, was the scene of the Brahan Seer’s famous prophecy of the fall of the Seaforths.
• Clan Munro held Foulis, 6 miles north-east. Munros and Dingwall men fought western clansmen at the traditional Battle of Bealach nam Broig below Ben Wyvis.
• Macbeth is said by tradition to have been born at Dingwall. The town’s war memorial tower on Mitchell Hill honours another local hero, General Sir Hector Macdonald, “Fighting Mac”.

Stones, lochs & churches

• The Eagle Stone (Clach an Tiompain), Strathpeffer, 5 miles west: a Pictish symbol stone carved with an eagle. Local tradition links it to a Munro victory over the Macdonalds in 1411, and the Brahan Seer is said to have predicted that ships would one day tie up to it if it fell three times. See our standing stones guide.
• Loch Ussie, near Brahan: tradition says the Brahan Seer threw his divining stone into it before he was burned in a tar barrel at Chanonry Point.
• Loch Glass and the slopes of Ben Wyvis (1,046 m), a Munro with a long ridge walk from Garbat. See our lochs guide.
• Strathpeffer: the Victorian spa village with its pump room and restored railway station, 10 minutes west.

Visiting

With the company in administration, there are no tours, open days or distilling at present. Please don’t go to the site. For distilleries open to visitors nearby, try Glen Ord at Muir of Ord (15 minutes) or Dalmore at Alness (20 minutes). Our Easter Ross Whisky Trail covers the area.

Nearby distilleries

• Glen Ord, Muir of Ord (about 8 miles): Singleton of Glen Ord, with tours.
• Teaninich, Alness (about 10 miles): the Munro laird’s distillery of 1817.
• Dalmore, Alness (about 11 miles), with tours.
• Ardross (about 14 miles).
• Glenmorangie, Tain (about 25 miles).

The whisky hub covers every region.

Sources

• Food Manufacture: GlenWyvis enters administration (Oct 2026).
• Crowdfund Insider: GlenWyvis passes £2.5m (2016).
• Scotchwhisky.com: GlenWyvis.
• GlenWyvis, official site.