New Distillery in Edinburgh’s Southside: Update!

Around a year ago, my Quaichshop blog (19th September 2018) mentioned the exciting new project in the planning that was the Holyrood Distillery, to be constructed utilising the Old Engine Shed, which has been converted and extended, in St. Leonard’s Lane, just off Edinburgh’s historic Pleasance. The building was previously a goods warehouse for St Leonard’s Station, the terminus of Edinburgh’s first railway, the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway.  I noted that this struck a particular chord with me, as my mother’s family had lived a stone’s throw from the (now) 184 year old Engine Shed, and my grandfather and uncle had been coopers in the, now long gone, Usher’s Brewery, which was serviced by the railway yards.

The whisky connection came when my uncle, Alex Edwards, went on to manage Auchentoshan Distillery, in Dalmuir, near Clydebank.  Indeed Alex’s wife, my aunt Eileen, who hailed from deepest Somerset, claimed to have invented the distillery tour in Scotland, having led these events at Auchentoshan from the late 1960s onwards – I’m not sure of the veracity of Eileen’s claim:  she always had a mischievous twinkle in her eye when she made it!

The area in which the Holyrood Distillery has been established sits comfortably within Edinburgh’s tradition of brewing and distilling excellence, due to the accessibility of an excellent water source.  This network of underground springs is known as the ‘charmed circle’.   Many an individual drinker has been pleasantly charmed by the effects of its final products!

The Holyrood Distillery is now a reality, which is open to the public for tours, and is previewing its wares in the form of fine malt whiskies, gins and gin liqueurs.  The malt whiskies being created fall into each of four categories – smoky, spicy, sweet and fruity.  Likewise, Holyrood produces four types of gin – pink, spiced, dry and Auld Tam – and four varieties of gin liqueur: blood orange and fennel, rhubarb and black pepper, raspberry and lemon, and apricot and ginger.

As is the case with a number of Scotland’s other distilleries, Holyrood offers the whisky enthusiast, or just the canny investor, the intriguing opportunity to own a bespoke cask of single malt whisky, tailored to suit that individual’s tastes and preferences in terms of flavour.  Only 100 casks are to be available from the first single malt distillery in Edinburgh for almost 100 years, so a piece of Ediburgh’s history is up for grabs!

I haven’t actually managed to make a visit to the Holyrood Distillery as yet, but that’s something I fully intend to rectify in the very near future.