InchDairnie Distillery, Fife: The Innovator

Overview

InchDairnie is Scotland’s laboratory distillery. It sits in the Fife countryside between Glenrothes and Kinglassie, below the Lomond Hills. It was built in 2015 by the veteran distiller Ian Palmer, with one aim: to try what other distilleries don’t. It uses a brewer’s hammer mill and mash filter instead of a traditional mill and mash tun. Alongside its pot stills it runs a one-off Lomond still fitted with plates, and it experiments with different grains, yeasts and distillation. Its first release, RyeLaw, made in 2023 from malted rye, is a style almost no other Scotch distillery makes.

It is not open to the public. Fife’s whisky renaissance is worth knowing about, though, and InchDairnie is one of its most unusual players. It is also surrounded by castles, palaces and ancient stones.

Where it is

InchDairnie lies on the northern edge of Glenrothes, near the old mining village of Kinglassie, in the middle of Fife. Edinburgh is about 30 miles south, around 45 minutes over the Queensferry Crossing, and St Andrews is about 25 miles east. The distillery sits where two springs, Flowers of May and Goatmilk Hill, meet, and the distillery says its name comes from the Gaelic for a hidden place or field.

The full history

Fife’s whisky past

Fife has a long whisky history. The great Cameronbridge grain distillery near Windygates, a few miles east of InchDairnie, was founded by the Haig family in the 1820s and is still one of Europe’s largest. In the 19th century the county had a number of small malt distilleries, but by the 20th century they had all gone. When InchDairnie was planned, Fife had almost no malt whisky at all. Daftmill farm distillery was the lone exception.

Ian Palmer’s idea

Ian Palmer spent decades in the Scotch industry before deciding to build a distillery of his own design. His company, John Fergus & Co, built InchDairnie as a technically modern plant. It was designed with the builders Colorado Group, and its still came from the Italian coppersmiths Frilli. Instead of copying a traditional Speyside layout, Palmer borrowed ideas from brewing and from other spirits. The goal was flexibility: make different spirits from different grains, and control flavour at every stage. The distillery was completed in 2015. Most of its early production went to blenders, while Palmer laid down stock for his own whiskies.

RyeLaw and KinGlassie

The first official release, RyeLaw, came in 2023. It is a whisky made from malted rye and malted barley, distilled in the Lomond still. It is the only whisky in the world made that way. InchDairnie also produces KinGlassie, a peated spirit named after the neighbouring village, which has appeared in independent and limited bottlings. More experimental releases are planned as the stocks age.

How it’s made

• Hammer mill and mash filter. Instead of a roller mill and mash tun, InchDairnie grinds its grain to a fine flour and separates the wort in a mash filter press, like a brewer. Teaninich, in Easter Ross, is another Scotch malt distillery that uses one. The filter extracts more sugar and gives very clear wort.
• Different yeasts and grains, including rye, alongside the usual distiller’s yeast and malted barley.
• The Lomond still. As well as conventional pot stills, InchDairnie has a Lomond still, a type of pot still with internal plates whose number and use can be changed to alter the spirit’s character. Lomond stills were invented in the 1950s, and very few are still in use. InchDairnie’s was built new for the distillery and named after the view of the Lomond Hills.

Clans & the land

InchDairnie has no clan founder, but central Fife is full of noble and royal history:

• The Leslies, Earls of Rothes. The neighbouring village of Leslie was their seat, and when the New Town was built in 1948 it was named Glenrothes after them.
• The Stewart kings at Falkland. About 7 miles north, Falkland Palace was the favourite hunting palace of the Stewart kings and queens, including James V and Mary, Queen of Scots. It has one of the oldest real tennis courts in the world.
• Loch Leven Castle. About 8 miles west, Mary was imprisoned on an island in Loch Leven in 1567 and escaped in 1568. See Loch Leven Castle.
• The Wemyss family, on the coast to the south-east, have held their lands at Wemyss since the 12th century. The coast is known for its Pictish carvings in the Wemyss Caves.

Lochs, stones & churches

• Loch Leven: Fife and Kinross’s great loch, a national nature reserve with a 13-mile heritage trail around it, about 15 minutes west.
• The Lomond Hills: East and West Lomond, the landmark twin summits of Fife, with an Iron Age fort on East Lomond and wide views. They give the distillery’s still its name.
• Balbirnie Stone Circle, Glenrothes: a Neolithic and Bronze Age stone circle carefully moved about 125 metres in the 1970s to make room for a road. It now stands in Balbirnie Park, about 3 miles from the distillery. See our standing stones guide.
• St Drostan’s Church, Markinch: an ancient church site with an early medieval tower, by Balbirnie.

Visiting

InchDairnie is not open to the public, apart from occasional invitation-only visits. Our Fife Whisky Trail covers the Fife distilleries you can visit, including Lindores Abbey and Kingsbarns. For the wider county, see our Fife guide.

Nearby distilleries

• Daftmill, near Cupar (about 12 miles): Fife’s farm distillery, with very rare releases.
• Lindores Abbey, Newburgh (about 14 miles): where the first written record of Scotch whisky, from 1494, was made. Tours are available.
• Eden Mill, St Andrews (about 22 miles).
• Kingsbarns, East Neuk (about 27 miles), with tours.
• Cameronbridge, Windygates (about 6 miles): Diageo’s giant grain distillery, not open to visitors.

The whisky hub covers every region.

Sources

• InchDairnie distillery — Wikipedia.
• Scotchwhisky.com Whiskypedia: InchDairnie.
• InchDairnie Distillery, official site.
• Historic Environment Scotland (Balbirnie, Falkland Palace, Loch Leven Castle).