Today the Edinburgh grain distillery is owned by Diageo plc (50%) and The Edrington Group (50%). North British is one of the largest Grain Whisky producers in Scotland. After the closure of the other grain distillery Caledonian it is the last distillery in Edinburgh.

Founded in 1885 the distillery site was west of Gorgie and Dalry, now part of Edinburgh, on farmland. The Whisky Lords Andrew Usher, William Sanderson and John M. Crabbie established The North British Distillery Company Limited near the Union Canal and close to the railway network. The Edinburgh city sewer was in the vicinity as were the farms which took the draff for their dairy cows. In 1990 North British produced 41.7 million litres of alcohol and after further investment 1.500.000.000 litres of grain spirit were produced in 1998. Now the capacity lies above 2 billion litres of alcohol per year.

Warehousing is restricted to Warehouse no. 1 on site and to Muirhall Warehouse Complex in modern racked warehouses. 

Today North British Distillery production units are situated between Murrayfield Rugby Stadium and Tynecastle Park of Heart of Midlothian Football Club.

No public admittance.

Please double-click and thumbnail the photo to open the tour.

Thank you.