The Borders Distillery, Hawick: The First in the Borders for 180 Years

Overview

The Borders Distillery, in Hawick, was the first whisky distillery in the Scottish Borders for about 180 years. It was built by The Three Stills Company, founded in 2013 by four former William Grant & Sons executives: John Fordyce, Tony Roberts, George Tait and Tim Carton. They raised about £10 million and restored the empty Victorian Turnbull & Scott engineering works on Commercial Road beside the River Teviot. Distilling began on 6 March 2018, and the doors opened to the public on 1 May 2018.

Hawick is the heart of reiver country. The castles, abbeys and fierce family history of the Scott, Douglas, Kerr, Elliot and Armstrong clans surround it.

Where it is

The distillery is on Commercial Road in the centre of Hawick, the largest town in the Borders, by the River Teviot. Edinburgh is about 50 miles north, around 1 hour 20 minutes by the A7, and Carlisle about 45 miles south. The Borders Railway to Tweedbank, about 20 minutes away, is the nearest rail link.

The full history

Whisky’s long absence from the Borders

The Borders had small licensed distilleries in the early 19th century. The last of them closed around 1837, and for almost two centuries the region made no whisky. Its money came from wool, textiles and knitwear, and Hawick became famous for its tweed and cashmere mills.

The Three Stills Company

The four founders had spent their careers at William Grant & Sons, the Glenfiddich and Grant’s company. In 2013 they formed the Three Stills Company to bring distilling back to the Borders. They chose the Turnbull & Scott building, a handsome Victorian works that once made engineering parts for the town’s mills. Ground was broken in August 2016, and the restored building opened in 2018.

Products

While the malt matured, the company sold blended whiskies: Clan Fraser and the blended malt Lower East Side. Its first gin, William Kerr’s Borders Gin, came out in summer 2018, named after a Hawick-born plant hunter. Its own single malt is maturing.

How it’s made

The Borders Distillery has two wash stills and two spirit stills, made by Forsyths of Rothes. It also has a specially commissioned Carter Head still for gin. It makes malt spirit from Scottish barley.

Clans, reivers & battles

• The Scotts of Buccleuch held Branxholme, 3 miles west of Hawick, the old seat of the Scott chiefs who later became Dukes of Buccleuch.
• The Douglases at Hermitage. Hermitage Castle, about 15 miles south in Liddesdale, is one of the grimmest fortresses in Britain. It was held by the Douglases. In 1566 Mary, Queen of Scots rode there and back from Jedburgh in a day to visit the wounded Earl of Bothwell.
• The reivers. For three centuries the Armstrongs, Elliots, Kerrs, Scotts and Johnstones raided across the border. Hawick’s annual Common Riding remembers 1514, when the town’s young men captured an English flag at Hornshole after Flodden.
• The Kerrs held Ferniehirst Castle near Jedburgh.

Abbeys, stones & lochs

• The Border abbeys: Jedburgh (11 miles), Melrose (16 miles), where Robert the Bruce’s heart is buried, Dryburgh, the grave of Sir Walter Scott, and Kelso.
• The Eildon Hills above Melrose, with the Roman fort of Trimontium at their foot. See our standing stones guide.
• St Mary’s Loch, the largest natural loch in the Borders, about 20 miles west over the hills. Alemoor Loch is closer. See our lochs guide and Lothians & Borders guide.

Visiting

The Borders Distillery has a visitor centre in the restored works, with distiller-led tours and tastings. Book ahead on the distillery’s website. Combine it with Hawick’s mill shops, the Border abbeys and Hermitage Castle.

Nearby distilleries

• Annandale, near Annan (about 45 miles).
• Glenkinchie, East Lothian (about 45 miles).
• Holyrood and the Edinburgh distilleries (about 50 miles).

The Southern Scotland Whisky Trail and the whisky hub cover the region.

Sources

• Scotchwhisky.com: Borders distillery.
• Scotchwhisky.com: The Three Stills Company.
• Scottish Financial News: first Borders distillery for two centuries.