Lochranza (Arran)

Arran once had many small, mostly illicit stills, and one legal distillery at Lagg in the south, which ScotchWhisky.com says ran from 1825 to 1837; the company gives 1840 for its closure. Isle of Arran Distillers was led by Harold Currie, a former managing director of Chivas Brothers, and two associates. They raised working capital by selling 2,500 "Founder's Bonds" at GBP 450, each repaid in cases of whisky.

The company says building began at Lochranza on 16 December 1994, paused while golden eagles nested above the site, and that the first spirit ran at 2.29 pm on 29 June 1995. The Queen opened the visitor centre in 1997, and the first three-year-old whisky was released in 1998. The Curries later sold the business to private individuals. Two more stills were added in 2017. Companies House shows the company incorporated in 1991; its main registered controller holds his interest through a trust.

Lochranza is a village at the north end of the Isle of Arran in the Firth of Clyde, a part of the island not previously known for whisky. Like the other islands, Arran is counted in the Highland region. ScotchWhisky.com says the site was chosen for its water and for tourism, and that more than 60,000 people visit each year. The company draws its water from Loch na Davie in the hills behind the distillery; it runs down the Easan Biorach burn, whose Gaelic name the company translates as "Sharp Waterfalls". The company's head office is near Stirling.

The company uses Concerto barley. ScotchWhisky.com describes a single-level plant with a small semi-lauter mash tun taking 2.5 tonnes, five wooden washbacks with a 65-hour fermentation and four small stills, heated by indirect steam; the 2017 expansion raised capacity to 1.2 million litres of alcohol a year. The company says the first distillation gives about 23% ABV and the second an average of 68%. Most malt is unpeated; the reference page lists some peated weeks a year, while the company has since moved its peated production to Lagg. Most bottlings are at 46% ABV or cask strength, without added caramel, and are not chill-filtered when bottled above 43%.

ScotchWhisky.com describes the new make as unpeated and "Highland-style", with light cereal behind a citric note, and says it has proved able to age, now reaching an 18-year-old in the core range. The company describes its whisky as clean and sweet, and stresses that colour comes only from the cask. A 10-year-old at 46% has been the centre of the range since 2006. Machrie Moor, first released around 2010, was the company's first peated Arran.