A rainy day in the south of Scotland
TL; DR: On a weekend in mid-June, we drove to Dumfries and Galloway to check out a couple of distilleries. First, we visited the good folks at Ben Cumhaill, a new distillery (almost) ready to go! Then, we visited Bladnoch for their Wave II release event. Everything good, except for the weather obviously.
This year (2025) has been a busy one so far for us, on both the work and family fronts. We had to call off our usual winter weekend away (2022 Dumfries and Galloway, 2023 Ardnamurchan and Tobermory, 2024 Skye and Raasay), and we didn’t manage to go on a distillery trip together until the Spirit of Speyside (although Gianluigi went back to Campbeltown and Arran with his pal Roberto). Also, we only did another campervan trip with Gianluigi’s parents, around the Scotland/England border. Hence, when Justine (from Kask Whisky) asked us if we wanted to join her for a day away with the campervan, we were very happy! The occasion was provided in mid-June by the event Bladnoch distillery organised for the release of their Wave II expression in the Master Distiller’s collection. The event is a sort of open day, with food vendors, music etc. Because it was on the way, we (meaning Justine) got in touch with Ben Cumhaill distillery (pronounced Ben “Cool”) owners, for a cheeky visit before reaching Wigtown.
On the Saturday morning, we left a very quiet Leith early, ready for the two-hour drive. We would meet Justine near Ben Cumhaill, on a lay-by nearby (which is also a secluded enough to maybe sleep one night in the campervan, noted for future occasions). As we (meaning Gianluigi) missed the right exit on the A74/M6, we stretched our trip by about 15 minutes. However, in the detour we found a lovely wee cafè near Dalswinton: the coffee was good, and the cake was amazing! While we were there the rain intensified, and by the time we were arrived at destination it was “pishing doon”! Which is the reason why Justine was, very unusually, a bit late. As soon as she got there we drove to the distillery: we were welcomed very warmly by Jess and Jeff, the distillery founders and owners. The site is on the A76, in the stretch between Thornhill and Dumfries, immersed in a rural landscape but yet very visible, as the name of the distillery is painted on the main building roof.
Hard to miss it.
They have a sizeable courtyard, between the road and two main buildings: the distillery, which used to be a post office first and a restaurant later, and the house. Right after the gate, to the right, there are two other smaller buildings, a cabin currently storing construction material and a prefab that was supposed to be an office, but it’s currently Jess’ art studio and lounge: she paints and sculpts.
Office…no, more of an art studio.
We sat there all together, and had Border cookies (Gianluigi’s favourite and the official Mr Vantastic biscuits) while Jeff went to get coffee for everyone. They started to tell us the story of their project: a few years ago, during the pandemic, they decided to start a distillery after experimenting with a wee still. They sold their house and property in the Cairngorms (a way too expensive area for a distillery) and found this lovely place down in Dumfries, where property prices are more affordable. After acquiring the old building (part of it might date back to the 1700s), they started to renovate the site themselves. They kept a nice record of all the main milestones, including the renovation, on their blog/website.
The spirit still…
They had to change plan more than once in our understanding, mainly when they were asked by the Scotch Whisky Association to add another still, as in Scotland it is not allowed to distill using one still only. Therefore, other than the beautiful 1,000litre still (with a cooling jacket) they bought from MacMillan, in East Lothian, they added a Hoga still from a Portuguese company, being the fastest solution. This one will be used as wash still.
…and the wash still added to comply with the SWA rules.
They have also a 1ton mashtun, and a wooden washback. To get the steam for the stills they will initially use LPG. But which type of whisky are they aiming for? An interesting thing is that Jess being Irish and Jeff being Scottish, they are aiming for a mix of the two styles. On their website they also talk about triple distillation, which would be very interesting. Overall, they are after a spirit-forward whisky, of course something produced in small quantities, but with lot of care for all the production steps: similar to other distilleries such as Daftmill (but without the farm and the cows).
The mashing & fermenting equipment is ready!
As the rain calmed down, we walked to the distillery building: part of it, the one dedicated to the future visitor centre (with a window on production) is still very much a work-in-progress, but the production equipment is there. They aim to start distilling around the end of summer, so by the time of writing they should be almost there: exciting times! After that, we went back to the lounge for another wee chat, together with their lovely dogs, before finally saying goodbye. We look forward to going back and seeing the distillery in action!
Always happy when in a distillery.
After Ben Cumhaill, we drove straight to Wigtown, where we parked our vans and walked to Bladnoch distillery, 20-25 minutes away. Unfortunately, we missed the only tasting with Nick Savage, their master distiller, who presented the Wave II expression. While that was the only tasting of the day, the bar in the garden was still open, as well as two food carts. In general, the event seemed a bit subdued, probably because of the heavy rain that kept falling. We paid a visit to their visitor centre and shop, where a very kind tour guide made us try a few drams. As we remembered from our first trip here, it is generally very good whisky, priced a tad too high in our opinion. Standouts were the 13y old, matured in ex-bourbon casks, and the 8y old, fully matured in American oak red wine casks: this reaffirmed what we thought during our Australian trip, that American oak red wine casks might work better than French oak, at least for young-ish single malts.
Some of the drams tried at the distillery shop.
In the evening, we had a wee meal in the campervan, not before a pint at the pub next to Bladnoch distillery. In the meanwhile, it started raining again, so we spent the evening chatting while sipping samples in the van. The next day was also very wet, so all the hiking plans went in the bin, and we slowly drove back to Leith.
Stay tuned for the next day-trip action, it will be a juicy one! Until then, slainte!
Ben Cumhaill distillery
Link: https://bencumhaill.co.uk/
Bladnoch distillery
Link: https://www.bladnoch.com/
Dramming around 