Glengyle Distillery
It’s only 60 miles as the crow flies from Glasgow to Campbeltown. The drive, by contrast, is around 135 miles, taking you north to Inverary before following Loch Fyne back south and then down the length of the west side of the Kintyre peninsula, finally crossing east to arrive in the former ‘Whisky Capital of the World’, Campbeltown.
By the late 1800’s and into the early 20th Century there were up to 30 distilleries in Campeltown. A colossal number for a very small town.
Today Glengyle is one of three (currently operating as of early 2025) distilleries in Campbeltown. Operated by J&A Mitchell of Springbank fame, the distillery is only in production for around three months of the year, typically October - December. For these three months production at Springbank is paused and the team move over to Glengyle to make Kilkerran Single Malt.
We were really keen to see Glengyle in production so left Glasgow early on a dark and dreary November’s morning to undertake the three hour drive. By the time we were snaking our way round Loch Fyne a fine day was dawning, treating us to a number of beautiful views before arriving in ‘the wee toon’.
Campbeltown has a fascinating feel to it. A slight sense of faded grandeur in the impressive late 19th and early 20th Century architecture? It’s previous life as a whisky powerhouse is evident all around. The attention to detail within the everyday architecture not to mention the imposing villas on the east side of the bay hark back to a time when Campbeltown was obviously creating a lot of wealth.
There’s a real buzz of activity as soon as you turn off the Longrow and onto Well Close towards the Springbank and Glengyle distilleries. When we visited works were well underway for a new bottling hall within the grounds of the Glengyle distillery.
The spire of the Campbeltown Parish Church is omnipresent around the town. As we make our way with tour guide Finlay from the shop towards Glengyle, turning back affords a great view of the spire over the Springbank buildings in the foreground.
Glengyle was originally founded in 1872 by William Mitchell. It then shut in 1925 during the global whisky downturn. Fast forward to 2004 when Mitchells Glengyle Ltd renovated and re-opened the distillery and then released their first single malt in 2009.
Curiously, the whisky from the Glengyle distillery is not called Glengyle, rather it is bottled under the name Kilkerran. This is because the name is owned by Loch Lomond Distillers, and used for their vatted malt. The name Kilkerran comes from the Scottish Gaelic: Ceann Loch Cille Chiarain ("head of the lake of Saint Kieran's cell"), the name of a settlement where Saint Kieran is believed to have had a religious cell and where modern Campbeltown stands today.
Much like Springbank, Glengyle is very much a traditional, manual distillery. All parts of the process are undertaken on site including traditional floor malting at Springbank as well as the bottling in Campbeltown. As soon as you step foot into the production buildings you get a real feel that everything here is done the right way, the old fashioned way. Automation doesn’t seem to enter the vocabulary. The impressive Boby Mill came from Craigellachie Distillery. It was no longer needed when they updated their milling set up to something more modern.
The production at Glengyle is all conveniently housed in one barn style building. Finlay informs us that the crew are all quite happy to de-camp over here in the colder Winter months while Kilkerran is made. You can see why.
Similar to the sourcing of the mill, the stills were acquired from Ben Wywis distillery at Invergordon. The mash tun is a stainless steel semi-lauter and there are four larch wooden washbacks.
The stills and spirit safe are everything you want and expect from an integrity distillery like Glengyle. Rough and ready looking but possessing a unique beauty and elegance all of their own.
We’re treated to a taste of the new make spirit which is always a great insight into a distillery’s purest form. The Glengyle distillate seems, even at this stage, delicate and fruity which may seem at odds with the visual grit and grime of the production set up . Once it’s been in cask for 12+ years, this elegant profile backed up by an ashy peat is something that really shines through.
The very functional looking and slightly steam-punk spirit safe in all its un-polished glory.
Everything at Glengyle is filled, warehoused and bottled on site in Campbeltown.
That infamous view of the Church spire which inspired the Kilkerran brand.
We were lucky enough to manage to fit in a Kilkerran Warehouse Tasting after our tour. It ended up a solo affair with our host Craig graciously taking us through 6 drams straight from the cask. An unforgettable experience in the atmospheric dunnage warehouse.
2006 III Distilled Kilkerran Single Malt - Refill Bourbon Barrel
2005 Kilkerran Single Malt - Refill Bourbon Hogshead
2009 Kilkerran SIngle Malt - Fresh Bourbon Barrel
2013 Kilkerran Single Malt - Refill Bourbon Barrel from 2020 Formerly Port Pipe
2013 Kilkerran Single Malt - Refill Sherry Hogshead
2015 Heavily Peated Kilkerran Single Malt - Fresh Bourbon Barrel
We couldn’t leave the shop empty handed so as well as a couple of 35cl bottles from the warehouse tasting we opted for this amazingly understated yet subtly complex 16 year old. A real beauty of a dram.
The tour at Glengyle was everything we had hoped it would be. Informative, insightful, honest and inspiring. This was representative of the trip to Campbeltown in itself. Absolutely fantastic.
We’ll be back!
