The people of Dingwall can look back on a long distilling tradition. One of Scotland's most famous distilleries at the time was located in Dingwall. The Ferintosh distillery was established in 1690 and was the only one allowed to distil Whisky without paying taxes. This privilege lasted for almost a century but was revoked in 1784 after protests from neighbouring distilleries. Ferintosh Whisky was so famous that even the Scottish poet Robert Burns regretted this in his poem Scotch Drink. Thirty years later, the distillery faced hard times. Ruins of a distillery can still be found on the Ferintosh site today.
In 1879, the Ben Wyvis distillery was established in Dingwall (Not to be confused with the distillery of the same name that existed on the site of the Invergorden distillery from 1965 to 1977). In 1889, an Irish company bought out Ben Wyvis and renamed it Ferintosh three years later. But even the famous name could not save the distillery through the US Prohibition era, and it had to close in 1926.
In 1896, the Glenskiach Distillery was built north of Dingwall, but it only lasted 30 years. Prohibition had a significant impact on Glenskiach, too, and it was also closed in 1926 and demolished altogether in 1933.
In the late 1950s, as Blended Whisky became more popular, especially in America, the Whisky industry recovered and Invergordon Distillery, east of Dingwall, was established to produce Whisky for Blends. Today it is part of Whyte & Mackay and is the only Grain Whisky distillery in the Highlands.
