Abhainn Dearg

Lewis had little legal distilling before this one. ScotchWhisky.com says the island's only earlier legal distillery, in Stornoway, ran for two years in the 1850s; the company itself mentions the Shoeburn distillery, closed around 1844, and elsewhere says legal whisky making returned to the Outer Hebrides for the first time since 1829. The dates do not agree.

Mark Tayburn founded the distillery in 2008 and filled the first cask that year. In 2010 two small casks of new make left the island, and a bottling of new spirit called The Spirit of Lewis followed. In 2011 the first single malt, a limited three-year-old, was launched at the Royal National Mod in Stornoway; the company says the founder was determined to have a Lewis whisky ready for it. ScotchWhisky.com dates the first 10-year-old single malts to December 2018.

The distillery stands at the mouth of a river at Carnish in Uig, on the south-west side of Lewis, near Uig Sands, in the Highland region; the company calls it the most westerly distillery in Scotland. The water comes from the Uig hills through Loch Raonasgail and the Abhainn Caslabhat, whose lower course local people called Abhainn Dearg, the Red River. The company says no houses or industry stand along its banks.

ScotchWhisky.com reports that Tayburn designed and built the stills himself, modelled on an old illicit still he had found. They have tall necks and thin descending lyne arms that run into external worm tubs. There are two small mash tuns, wooden washbacks and a fermentation of about four days, and both peated and unpeated spirit are made. The company first sowed over ten acres (about 4 ha) of Golden Promise barley in Uig and says that since 2015 farmers at Melbost have grown all the malting barley for the single malt. Filtering, bottling and labelling are done by hand; there is no added colour and no chill-filtration.

The company says its bottlings will always be limited, made for visitors, internet buyers and local demand. The range includes a 10-year-old, special releases and cask-strength bottlings, and visitors can taste spirit from the 2008 production. The opened sources do not give a tasting description, so the house style is not described here.