Lindores Abbey Distillery

The Spiritual Home of Scotch Whisky. Revived after 523 years. Lindores Abbey’s widely recognised links to the earliest written reference to Scotch Whisky, mean that people have been travelling to this quiet corner of Fife for centuries. After a 500-year break, these whisky pilgrims are now once again able to see Single Malt distillation happening once again on this historic site. In 2017, spirit started flowing once again from copper stills at Lindores Abbey. OUR STORY Learning as much as we can from the great Scottish distillers around us, past and present, and from others much further afield, we are looking forward to bringing a very modern whisky-making approach to this ancient site. The distillery was created by converting and enlarging the old Abbey farm steading, which was built from original Abbey stone. The glass-fronted stillroom looks directly out over the Abbey grounds. WHISKY MAKING The water for our whisky comes from a borehole near the distillery, in order that we can draw from the same supply used in 1494. The barley is grown on our land, malted and then mashed in a conventional, semi-lauter tun supplied by renowned distillery fabricators, Forsyths of Rothes. Fermentation is happening in traditional wooden washbacks, supplied by Joseph Brown of Dufftown. We have three Forsyths copper pot stills, one large wash still and two smaller spirit stills, which allows greater copper contact in the final distillation, creating a clean and delicate flavour in the spirit. A LONG-HELD DREAM The Lindores Abbey Farm was bought by Drew McKenzie Smith’s grandfather in 1913. Like his father before him, Drew now holds the title of ‘Custodian of Lindores’. Along with his wife, Helen, Drew spent two decades tirelessly researching, planning and campaigning to bring a distillery back to the grounds of Lindores Abbey.