Bladnoch’s rich history dates back to 1817, when John and Thomas McClelland were first granted a licence to distil Whisky on their Bladnoch farm in Scotland’s Lowlands. For nearly a century, successive generations of McClelland family grew and modernised the distillery. At its peak, the site had six washbacks and annual production of approximately 230,000 litres of alcohol, which cemented its status as the “Queen of the Lowlands”. In 1956, Bladnoch Distillery Limited was created and the stills which had fallen silent during the war were recommissioned. The stillhouse was expanded to four stills in 1966. Ian Gulline worked the stills at the time and used his new Cinefilm camera to capture these scenes of life at Bladnoch Distillery. More recently, the distillery was owned by Arthur Bell & Sons (which would later become part of Guinness / United Distillers) between 1983 and 1993, a period during which the brand’s distribution was increased and a Visitor Centre was established. From 1993, the distillery was privately owned by Raymond and Colin Armstrong. Bladnoch celebrated its 200 year anniversary, making it one of the oldest and one of the largest privately owned Scotch Whisky distilleries.
