The Southern Scotland Whisky Trail: Ayrshire, Galloway & the Borders
The trail at a glance
| Distance | ~175 miles end to end — the longest legs are Bladnoch to Annandale (68 miles) and on to the Borders (41) |
| Time | Three or four days — the drives are long, the roads empty |
| Distilleries | 6 — Lochlea, Ailsa Bay, Galloway, Bladnoch, Annandale and The Borders |
| Open to visit | Four do: Lochlea (booked tours), Bladnoch, Annandale and The Borders; Ailsa Bay is production only, and Galloway (the former Crafty Distillery) is being redeveloped, so check its website before going |
| Start / end | Lochlea in Ayrshire, finishing at Hawick in the Borders |
| Our take | Among the quietest whisky country in Scotland — go slowly and enjoy the empty roads |
The south-west and the Borders are the quiet, green, forgotten end of Scottish whisky — no famous names, no coach parties, and a handful of new distilleries that have changed that. This trail runs down the Ayrshire coast, across Galloway to the most southerly distillery in Scotland, and east to Annandale and the Borders.
Base 1 — the Ayrshire coast
Lochlea is a single-estate farm distillery near Tarbolton making a clean, characterful Lowland malt from barley grown in its own fields — on the farm where Robert Burns lived and worked as a young man; tours are by booking. Down the coast at Girvan, Ailsa Bay is a big malt distillery hidden inside William Grant & Sons’ grain complex, opposite the great rock of Ailsa Craig; it is not open to the public, but its malt is bottled as Aerstone and as peated Ailsa Bay.
Base 2 — Galloway: Newton Stewart & Wigtown
Around Newton Stewart, at the foot of the Galloway Hills, stands the Galloway Distillery. This is the former Crafty Distillery (2017), home of Hills & Harbour gin. In 2025 it was bought by Outlander actor Sam Heughan and Alex Norouzi of Sassenach Spirits and renamed. Its first single malt is maturing, and the site is being redeveloped, so check opening before you go. Then south to Bladnoch in the Machars: the most southerly distillery in Scotland, in soft green country near the book town of Wigtown, making a floral, lightly grassy Lowland malt; tours run twice daily or more in high season.
Base 3 — Annandale & the Borders
East across the Solway coast, Annandale near Annan is a beautifully restored Victorian distillery that reopened in 2014 after nearly a century of silence; it makes unpeated Man o’ Words and peated Man o’ Sword (nods to Burns and Robert the Bruce) and runs daily guided tours. Gretna Green is a few miles along the road. Finally, The Borders Distillery in Hawick was the first legal distillery in the Borders since 1837, opened in 2018 in a restored Victorian building making a smooth Lowland malt from local barley; distiller-led tours run Monday to Saturday.
| Lochlea → Ailsa Bay | about 28 mi | ~39 min |
| Ailsa Bay → Galloway | about 30 mi | ~41 min |
| Galloway → Bladnoch | about 8 mi | ~13 min |
| Bladnoch → Annandale | about 68 mi | ~92 min |
| Annandale → The Borders | about 41 mi | ~60 min |
Road distances and drive times from OpenStreetMap routing (a guide — allow for traffic, single-track roads and ferries).
Overnights, food & the practical bit
The distances are the challenge: Bladnoch to Annandale is nearly an hour and a half. Newton Stewart and Wigtown make a good base for Base 2; Annan or Hawick for Base 3. Book Lochlea and Bladnoch ahead; Annandale has walk-in options; check Galloway’s website for its current opening.
More whisky
- The full picture: Scotch whisky — regions, distilleries & the oldest of all.
- North of here: The Glasgow & Clyde Whisky Trail.