The Isle of Lewis’ only legal distillery, located in its capital Stornoway, operated briefly for just two years in the 1850s. After its closure, residents of Lewis relied on Scotch imported from the mainland or sourced from illicit local producers. This changed in 2008 when Marko Tayburn established a new distillery at Red River (Abhainn Dearg) on the island’s western coast, making it the most remote whisky distillery in Scotland.
Resourcefulness is a hallmark of Hebrideans, and Tayburn exemplified this by designing and constructing the distillery’s stills himself, inspired by an old illicit still he had discovered, rather than sourcing them from the usual supplier, Forsyth’s of Rothes. The distillery also features two small mash tuns, wooden washbacks (sourced externally), and a four-day fermentation process.
The unique stills have elongated necks resembling witches’ hats, with thin descending lyne arms leading to external worm tubs. The distillery produces both unpeated and peated whisky. In December 2018, Abhainn Dearg released its first 10-year-old single malt, marking the oldest whisky ever produced by a legal distillery in the Outer Hebrides.
