Tullibardine History

The Tullibardine distillery takes its name from the nearby Tullibardine Moor in the north east of Blackford. Despite only being bought over in 2003 by a business consortium, Tullibardine distillery has plenty of history which we believe is a very important part of our brand and whisky products.  So sit back, relax and enjoy the Tullibardine story.

In the year 1488, King James IV purchased beer from the brewery which stood on the site of what is now the Tullibardine Distillery following his coronation at Scone Palace, hence the Tullibardine relation to 1488 and our beer. The Tullibardine Distillery was constructed within the walls of a very old redundant brewery which once belonged to Messrs Sharp and it was one of three breweries in existence in the village at one time.

During the early part of the 20th century, the brewery on site of the distillery fell upon hard times and was used for a variety of purposes. What had not changed and to this day remains the same, was the plentiful supply of crystal pure spring water which continually flowed past the brewery from the Ochil hills above; the Danny Burn.

In 1947, a Welshman by the name of William Delme Evans purchased the brewery with a view to converting it into a distillery.  Mr Evans also designed both the Jura and Glenallachie distilleries.  In 1949, Tullibardine distillery produced spirit for the first time and ran under Delme Evans ownership until 1953 where failing health forced him to sell it to the family company of Brodie Hepburn. The distillery had a series of owners since then, one owner doubling the size of the distillery in 1974 and installing the still in current use today.  

However, in 1994 Whyte and Mackay, one of the previous owners decided to mothball Tullibardine Distillery along with several other malt distilleries due to an excess of distillation capacity within their company.  The distillery then lay dormant until June of 2003 when it was bought along with some of the existing stock of Tullibardine whisky by a consortium of five business men.  In December of 2003 with the expertise of John Black as distillery manager, Tullibardine distillery once again fired up the boiler and spirit flowed from the stills for the first time in nearly nine years.

Throughout the re-commissioning process, care was taken to maintain as many of the traditional methods of production as possible and utilise the skills of the distillery manager and operators in producing the Tullibardine spirit. In the first year of operation, and using only two of the four stills, Tullibardine produced 100,000 litres of alcohol.

Tullibardine Whisky

The care, attention to detail and passion which is instilled by our team at Tullibardine has resulted in the production of a superb spirit which is laid to rest in the finest casks available.  These casks are selected by our whisky experts.  We at Tullibardine are very proud of our history; however the success of Tullibardine is ultimately down to the quality of our whisky which speaks for itself.