Abhainn Dearg Distillery

The first single malt whisky from a distillery in the Outer Hebrides since 1829.

Abhainn Dearg Distillery (pronounced Aveen Jarræk), or Red River in English, is a craft distillery located in Uig on the Outer Hebridean Isle of Lewis. The distillery was founded by Mark Tayburn (Marko) and was the first legal whisky distillery in the Outer Hebrides in almost two hundred years.

Established in 2008 the first spirit to leave the island was in 2010 when two small casks of new spirit were sold. One went to Germany where it toured the whisky fairs with importers Alba Import. The second stayed a little closer to home, going to McSorleys Bar in Glasgow. Later a special signed bottling of the new spirit called, The Spirit of Lewis, was offered and was quickly sold out.

The first Abhainn Dearg Single Malt was released in 2011, a three year old special release.

Owner

Mark Tayburn
Status

Operational
Country

Scotland
Region

Islands
Production type:

Single Malt, unaged spirits
Founded

2008
Production yearly

20.000 Liters

History

All of that changed in 2008 when Marko Tayburn built a distillery at Red River [Abhainn Dearg] on the western coast of the island making this officially the most remote whisky-making site in Scotland.

Hebrideans are resourceful by nature – they have to be – so when it came to the stills, Tayburn didn’t go, like everyone else, to Forsyth’s of Rothes but designed and built them himself, modelling them on an old illicit still he had discovered. In addition there is a pair of small mash tuns, wooden washbacks (all bought in) and a fermentation regime which lasts for four days.

The stills have elongated necks which look a little like witches’ hats and thin descending lyne arms which run into external worm tubs. A mix of unpeated and peated spirit is made.

In December 2018 the distillery launched its first 10-year-old single malts – the oldest whisky to be produced by a legal distillery in the Outer Hebrides.