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Scotland's highest mountain, Ben Nevis (1344m/4490ft) gave its name to a
distillery in the nearest town, Fort William. The distillery was established
in 1825 by "Long John" McDonald, a 6ft 4in descendant of a ruler of the
western Scottish kingdom of Argyll. In 1989 the distillery was sold by
Whitbread to Mitsui, partner of the Japanese whisky-makers Nikka. The new
owners restored production of malt but not grain whisky in 1990 under the
name Ben Nevis Distillery Co Ltd
© Michael Jackson 1994
Lochy Bridge, Fort William, PH33 6TJ
Tel: 01397-700200
I visited this in August '94 as I happened to be passing. It's a small and utilitarian distillery which doesn't help but It is always good to see distilleries making an effort so on the positive side there was a small exhibition, the tour was free, the people friendly enough and there was a tasting (the blend only). The video they had put together was not that inspiring and some of the 'factual' myths they were putting forward about the origins of distilling were from the Tartan Loch Ness Monster school of presentation and plain wrong, even if given tongue-in-cheek. They have a home page (below). At present it is fairly light-weight but I moaned to them about the general presentation and they responded with their new brochure which is MUCH better and I look forward to seeing some or all of it on the net.
I have a note of a grain distillery of the same name but I do not believe it is still operating.
Visit the distillery's Web site
Search Dr. Do'g's index for the history of Ben Nevis
There just might be some news about Ben Nevis in The "Scotsman" newspaper