Bruichladdich Distillery Tour Bruichladdich Distillery opened for production in 2001 after a long period mothballed. The distillery is independently owned and the tour is fascinating.

Outside the distillery they have placed on of the old stills, if you look carefully the humorists at the distillery have places a leg and a boot coming out of the top, to the chagrin of passing visitors.

There is parking behind the distillery but take care because there is a steep ramp – if your car is heavily loaded, as mine was, you risk damage to your sump and spoilers.

The tour begins in the visitor centre, in here there is ample space for tables, bar, a display of the different whiskies produced by the distillery and the merchandise that is related to the distillery. There are even Bruichladdich sunglasses!

Personally my favourite is the 15 year old and I really like the lightweight jacket if anyone is feeling generous.

The Grain mill is the original, Victorian device, wonderfully restored by a Yorkshire craftsman it still mills the barley into grist. The distillery was silent on the day of my visit so it was not possible to see, and hear it in operation.

One advantage of the distillery being silent is that we could actually see the mechanisms within the mash tun that stirs the barley and water while it is being heated to extract the malt.

The mash tun itself is a wonderful, big cast iron device painted attractively in yellow and green.

Bruichladdich is developing two new whiskies which should be ready in a few years, these will be peated rather more than the traditional, lighter spirit that is so characteristic. Personally I am looking forwards to trying these new whiskies, I was given a smell of one of them and it seems to be developing well.

The first picture here is of one of the stills, this is a composite of three pictures and the curves in the pipes are an artifact of this process, oh for a decent camera with a zoom lens! The still has a very tall neck which is why I have taken this trouble and this affects the final spirit.

The spirit safe also is an original piece of equipment on wood and brass. Port Charlotte is one of the new whiskies being produces and Lochindall is another, named after long lost distilleries.

Bruichladdich have just completed their new bottling plant, this makes them unique on the island in that the whisky is distilled, matured and bottled on the island using Islay spring water for the bottling. The whisky is bottled at 46% since cold filtering is not used to retain the full range of flavours.

Finally, as all whisky tours must, it ended in the visitor centre with a couple of sample drams. I would like to thank the staff for a very interesting and informative tour.