Princess Anne opens new Scotch distillery

The Princess Royal was given the privilege of drawing the very first spirit when she officially opened a new Scotch whisky distillery on Sunday.

The Ardnamurchan Distillery at Glenbeg is Scotland’s first distillery to be heated solely by locally sourced wood chips

Before officially opening the Ardnamurchan Distillery – located at Glenbeg, Lochaber, on the Ardnamurchan Estate – Princess Anne was given a tour of the new facility and introduced to its work force.

Part of Adelphi Distillery Ltd. the Ardnamurchan Distillery will produce single malt Scotch whisky and is expected to bring as many as 14,000 visitors to the area each year.

The multi-million pound project is the first distillery in Scotland to be heated solely by locally sourced wood chips, and Adelphi director, Donald Houston, told the Press and Journal a key element of the project is to ensure the distillery is run by “sustainable, renewable and environmentally benign means”.

“With a great deal of planning and complex design work, we’re proud that we have achieved this objective,” Houston commented. “The distillery represents a significant milestone in the long-term plan for the development and improvement of the socio economics of Ardnamurchan.

“It will provide enormous opportunities for the development of tourism and the direct and indirect provision of jobs in this very remote and isolated part of Scotland.”