Witchmark: how history is influencing the future of English whisky
How do you honour the heritage of a historic site while building a sustainable English whisky distillery for the future? We visited Witchmark Distillery to learn more.
“What we’ve tried to do is retain the kind of authenticity of the buildings that we’ve got, but also create a contemporary approach to production, and to distilling in general,” explains Jon Carson, founder and commercial director at Witchmark Distillery, on The Spirits Business Podcast. “We’ve tried to kind of marry those two, which I think we’ve done successfully. We’re very proud of the brand. We’re very proud of where we are, and who we are.”
Witchmark Distillery is one of the new kids on the block in the English whisky scene – but one certainly not doing things by halves.
Director of operations Alasdair ‘Eddie’ Large founded the distillery along with Carson, and production officially started in 2023. The site boasts one of the biggest capacity distilleries in England with its 5,000-litre wash still and 3,200-litre spirit still nestled in the Grade II-listed barn.
The distillery grounds are steeped in history and folklore, which influenced its name. ‘Witchmark’ derives from the eponymous medieval carvings, or ‘witch marks’, that can be seen in the distillery’s stone buildings. The carvings were engraved to turn away evil spirits and protect those who lived or worked in them.
While the whisky is still maturing, the distillery has released award-winning vodkas and gins – and even bottled its new make spirit. The standard coming from this fledgling site is less surprising given the powerhouse names that were implored to partner with Carson on the project. James Espey OBE, co-founder of The Last Drop Distillers, for example, is on the advisory board, as is his daughter and managing director of The Distillers One of One, Beanie Espey.
“With James and his credentials also came Antonia Jamison; she was one of the founding directors for Sipsmith,” Carson explains. “There’s Alan Rutherford, who, again, used to be the chairman of The Lakes Distillery, and Colin Scott, he was the ex-master blender for Chivas Brothers for 47-or-so years.
“Collectively, these massive, heavy hitters of the industry started coming together. And it was at that stage I thought, ‘wow, do you know what, with these guys comes credibility. With credibility, hopefully comes investment. With investment, comes a beautifully functioning and flourishing whisky distillery.’ It was tremendously exciting.”
Being situated among the English countryside, sustainability has always been high on the agenda for Witchmark. In April 2025, the distillery was certified B Corp with a score of 124.4 – making it the highest-scoring B Corp-certified English spirits producer.
“When Alistair [Munroe, managing director], myself and Eddie got together, we said, ‘Right, if we’re going to do this, let’s create a blueprint’, certainly in terms of how we envisage this working, creating ethical, sustainable distillery, [that] was something we all agreed within the first five minutes. That’s never been discussed since, has never been negotiated; it’s never been debated,” Carson says. “It’s always been our focus from start to finish, period.”
He continues: “It’s been time consuming. It’s been quite expensive. But as I mentioned, it was never a debate. It was always going to be something that we were going to do from the start, and it’s hugely important to us that we continue in the way that we started, which we will do.”
The full podcast episode with Witchmark’s Carson is available to listen to on all major streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music, where he goes into greater detail about the future plans for Witchmark and how the team got the new distillery off the ground. The episode is also available for free on Acast via the link below.
Last week’s podcast guest was Brian Kinsman, malt master at Glenfiddich owner William Grant & Sons. Other recent guests have included Olivier Ward, founder of Everglow Spirits, who discussed the findings of the inaugural UK Distilling Census, and professional gin forager Geraldine Kavanagh, from Glendalough Distillery, who shared how her love and interest in the outdoors led to a unique, fascinating career.
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