Glenachulish Distillery approved beside Loch Leven

Highland Council granted permission on Thursday 6 August for a six million pound single malt distillery on land beside Loch Leven, close to the Ballachulish Bridge. It will be called Glenachulish. The stillhouse will hold three sets of copper pot stills, set behind windows facing the loch so visitors can watch the spirit being made. There will be tasting rooms, a shop, a community space, and a café with a terrace looking out over the water.

There will be seven permanent year-round jobs, with an estimated thirty more supported in the wider economy. Recruitment will focus on Ballachulish, Kinlochleven and the surrounding villages, places whose industrial pasts were built on slate and aluminium rather than whisky. Construction of the first phase is expected to start in 2027, with production following in 2028. The buildings are dark clad forms in metal and timber, with three chimney shapes rising from the roofline.

They are meant to echo the Three Sisters of Glencoe and the three stills working away underneath. Whether that lands as neatly in metal and timber as it does on the drawings, we shall see. The project comes from the family behind Bar 1890, the whisky venue at Creag Mhor Lodge in North Ballachulish. It was not universally popular locally, and the committee had objections in front of it as well as letters of support.