Glen Garioch Distillery, Highlands

Glen Garioch distillery is one of the oldest in Scotland, having been founded in 1798. This was the heartland of the northern Picts, and the district has the greatest concentration of carved stones and Pictish monuments in Scotland. It is named after the valley of the Garioch, the ‘Granary of Aberdeenshire’, where the finest Scottish barley can be grown thanks to the mid climate of plentiful sunshine and not too much rain. It was definitely working during the late 18th century under Thomas Simpson, but Historic Scotland lists its four-storey Georgian alt barn and twin pagoda chimneys c. 1780. It was extended to three stills in 1973 and has suffered several periods of closure, most recently in the mid-1990s. To the delight of many, this charming distillery in the Aberdeenshire market town of Old Meldrum was refurbished and re-opened again in 1997.