Old Photograph Whisky Distillery Tobermory Scotland

Old photograph of the Scotch whisky distillery in Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Scotland. The distillery was founded as Ledaig distillery in 1798 by John Sinclair, ten years after the founding of Tobermory by the British Fisheries Society. Sinclair had originally arrived in the village as a merchant dealing with soda ash from burning the locally available kelp. In April 1797, he applied for 57 acres to the south of the harbor in order to build houses and a distillery. Distilling had been banned in the UK since 1795 in order to save grain for the War of the First Coalition with France. Although he was originally told to build a brewery instead, he remained with the original plan and additionally built a pier known as Sinclair's Quay. The current buildings were constructed during that first period of occupation, and were licensed in 1823. It was acquired by John Hopkins & Company in 1890, and by Distillers Company in 1916 before closing in 1930 following a drop in the demand for whisky due to ten years of prohibition in the United States of America. It is currently owned by Burn Stewart Distillers, a subsidiary of Distell Group Limited of South Africa. Its main product, Tobermory single malt, is used in the blends Scottish Leader and Black Bottle. The distillery also produces a smaller amount of peat whisky, which remains known under the former name, Ledaig.



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