THE SCOTTISH islands made famous by the movie Whisky Galore! are to have their very own distillery – almost 200 years after the last one closed its doors.
Abhainn Dearg Distillery is the first legal whisky supplier to hail from the islands for 170 years, and the company is due to unveil a small selection of its spirit later this month.
Their single malt whisky is currently maturing in barrels and will be available for sale in two years time.
Based in Uig on the Outer Hebridean Island of Lewis, the tiny distillery is the most westerly whisky producer in the UK.
Distilling history on the island goes back to the early 1600s, and the last legal Hebridean distiller, Stornoway’s Shoehorn Distillery, closed for business in 1840.
The Shoehorn Distillery was owned and operated by former-Laird Sir James Mathieson, a teetotaler and reputed-opium baron, who built Lews Castle on the site.
But today, islanders say the Hebridean whisky production did not stop with the closure, but that it went “back to its roots”.
Deadline Press & Picture Agency 