A dot on the map. Small but hardworking and with big ambition. Once at its heart, our mill.. Disused and unloved. Bricks scarred by generations of hard graft. But nearby, lay the ingredients to transform it: Water, Barley, people and Optimism.
Enter the 1960s: A time for dreaming and risk taking. The world was born changing - and so was our town. Deanston Distillery was born, centuries of dust swept away. A new beginning. For a community of whisky makers, opportunist, risk takers and hard workers
Our home is far from the quaint Highland distilleries that may come to mind when you think about whisky in Scotland. Formerly a bustling cotton mill that in its heyday employed 1500 people, the building and community of Deanston were facing uncertainty when it was closed for good in 1965... Enter our founder Brodie Hepburn
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Our community began with the cotton mill. It was one of the things that persuaded our founder to take the risk and build the distillery. A community with the passion and honest work ethic to become true whisky makers. From the kinship of our distillers, to our present day innovators, to our growing community across the world. there is a community and character in every single bottle of Deanston whisky.
Our founder Bodie Hepburn is far from your average founder. A true pioneer, he saw huge potential in the battered old cotton mill, where others only saw challenges. He saw potential in the river Teith, with water soft enough for whisky, and the strength to power a community. He saw the people of Deanston town, with the passion and honest work ethic to become true whisky makers. Hepburn's took a risk and paid it off. The old cotton mill was transformed into a place perfect for whisky making.
We source only the finest Scottish Barley, close in proximity to our distillery, in partnership with local farmers. It's not the norm to only use Scottish barley, but it's important to us. We use traditional, hands-on methods and fermentation that takes far longer, because it's the right thing to do, transforming the grain into the waxy soft, smooth highland single malt we're known for.
The mighty River Teith is so much more than a water source. It's so powerful, it can fuel a distillery. The old cotton mill built a lade and installed one of the biggest waterwheels in Europe to harness its power. Then came electrical turbines in the 40s. fast forward to today, our offices, The coffee Bothy, the Visitor Centre, and still have approx. 75% remaining to sell back to the National Grid! The River Teith is the literal power behind everything we create. But it's more than our life source, its symbolic of our ambition.