The Glenrothes Distillery sits along the Burn of Rothes in the famous Speyside area of Highland Scotland, and was founded in 1878 by James Stuart & Co who had also operated the nearby Macallan Distillery for the previous decade.Less than 10 years later, in 1887, the distillery merged with Islay Distillery Co to form the Highland Distillers Company. This allowed them to capitalise on the boom in demand for their production, much of which was used in well known blended Scotch whiskies, and work to extend the distillery began in 1896.
The distillery has a chequered history with disaster however, seeing fires in 1897, 1922 and 1962, as well as an explosion in 1903. This has only encouraged them to rebuild and expand, with the latest extension in 1982 seeing the increase to 5 wash stills and 5 spirit stills. Glenrothes is said to be home to the famous Cutty Sark blended Scotch Whisky, first produced by Berry Brothers & Rudd in 1923. When the blend was sold to The Edrington Group in 2010 the distillery went the opposite way and has been owned by the famous whisky merchant since.
