Ardnahoe

On 9 November 2018, Ardnahoe filled cask number 001. Three years earlier, its founding team had been looking across an empty field beside Loch Ardnahoe, imagining a distillery. Today, two stills stand between the loch and the Sound of Islay, on the island's north-east coast, just north of Port Askaig and between Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain.

The name is said to mean “Height of the Hollow” in Gaelic. The setting gives Ardnahoe its water and its outlook, but the ambition behind it belongs to a family. Owned by Hunter Laing & Co rather than a global drinks group, the distillery grew from Stewart Laing's wish to have a distillery of his own on Islay. His family's experience lay in blending and bottling; Ardnahoe's first spirit ran in 2018.

Family and foundations

Stewart Laing's connection with Islay began long before Ardnahoe. As a teenager, he worked at Bruichladdich. The Single Cask places his training there in the 1960s, an experience associated with his lifelong dream of owning an Islay distillery. The producer remembers Stewart Hunter Laing, who lived from 1946 to 2026, as Ardnahoe's visionary.

The family's whisky roots reach back to the 1940s, when Stewart's father founded a blending and bottling firm. Stewart and his sons Andrew and Scott established Hunter Laing & Co in Glasgow in 2013, continuing that blending and bottling tradition. Scott and Andrew also founded the independent bottler Edition Spirits.

Hunter Laing & Co owns the distillery, while Ardnahoe Distillery Co Ltd is the operating company, registered in Scotland as No. 507595.

Building the distillery

The search found its answer in 2015: a four-acre site beside Loch Ardnahoe. The producer recalls several members of the founding team standing in an empty field in the north-east of Islay and recognising its potential. Plans were lodged in January 2016, approved by Argyll and Bute Council in September that year, and followed by ground breaking in late 2016.

Jim McEwan, formerly master distiller at Bruichladdich, joined as production director in 2017. Spirit first ran through Ardnahoe's stills on 14 October 2018; the producer records the filling of cask number 001 on 9 November 2018. Construction, distillation and the first cask each mark a distinct step in turning that field into a working distillery.

Ardnahoe was the first new distillery on Islay in 15 years, and the producer describes it as the island's ninth. Accounts differ on its founding date. One guide gives 2018; the producer and ScotchWhisky.com place ground breaking in late 2016, first spirit in 2018 and the opening in 2019. Using the relevant milestone gives a clearer picture than choosing one year to stand for the whole project.

In May 2024, The Spirits Business included Ardnahoe among Islay's working distilleries alongside Ardbeg and Bowmore. The newcomer had joined an established island industry. Its position between Caol Ila and Bunnahabhain describes where it stands, not a claim that its whisky is made at either neighbouring distillery.

How the spirit is made

Long lyne arms and worm tub condensers distinguish Ardnahoe's stillhouse. The lyne arms measure 24.5 feet and are described as the longest in Scotland. The worm tubs, reported to be the only ones on Islay, contain 77 metres of copper coil.

Production begins with malt from Port Ellen Maltings, peated to 40 parts per million, and water from Ardnahoe Loch. The loch is therefore part of the working distillery as well as its setting: the water beside the site is also its recorded source for production.

The mash tun is a 2.5 tonne semi-lauter. Four Oregon pine washbacks each have a capacity of 25,000 litres, with two mashes filling one fermentation. Fermentation lasts 60 to 70 hours.

Two lamp glass shaped stills handle distillation, one wash still and one spirit still. The wash still holds 12,500 litres. The spirit still has a capacity of 9,500 litres and takes a 7,500 litre charge.

New make comes off the still at 68.5% alcohol and enters cask at 63.5%. The cask programme includes first-fill ex-bourbon casks, together with some experimental ex-oloroso and Pedro Ximénez butts. That describes the range used in production, rather than a fixed recipe shared by every Ardnahoe release.

Published annual capacity estimates vary. ScotchWhisky.com gives approximately 0.9 million litres a year. Whisky Clan reports roughly 500,000 to 900,000 litres, attributing that range to The Single Cask, and says the owner has not confirmed a figure. The upper estimate remains a published figure rather than an owner-confirmed capacity.

Whisky and releases

Ardnahoe's first single malt appeared in 2024: a five-year-old whisky drawn from ex-bourbon and ex-oloroso casks. It marked the arrival of the distillery's own mature whisky, following the first cask filling in November 2018. The two dates capture different moments, one the beginning of maturation, the other the release of a finished single malt.

Before that came Scarabus, launched in 2019 as an Islay single malt from an undisclosed distillery and sold while Ardnahoe's spirit matured. It is separate from Ardnahoe whisky: its Islay origin and its place in the chronology do not make it an Ardnahoe expression.

The year of Ardnahoe's debut is established across the supplied accounts, although its precise timing differs. A trade report gave 10 May 2024; another draft said summer 2024, as summarised by Whisky Clan. With those accounts differing, 2024 is the reliable date to use for the first single malt's appearance.

Named Ardnahoe expressions include Inaugural Release, Infinite Loch, Bholsa, Cask Strength Batch 1 and Cask Strength Batch 2. These names identify individual releases within the distillery's range. The age and cask details of the first single malt belong to that whisky and should not be carried across automatically to every expression in the list.

The distinction between place and release is useful when exploring the range. Ardnahoe names both the producer and the distillery, while an expression identifies a particular whisky. The first single malt's five years of maturation and its combination of casks describe that release, rather than setting a specification for everything that follows.

Visiting Ardnahoe

Ardnahoe's visitor facilities include a shop, bar, café and sensory room. Its setting is central to a visit: the distillery stands between Loch Ardnahoe and the Sound of Islay, north of Port Askaig. This is the site the founding team identified in 2015, before planning approval and construction gave their idea a physical form.

The opening is dated to 2019 in the accounts summarised above, although the available record does not reliably establish the precise public opening date. The opening year and the first Ardnahoe single malt's appearance in 2024 are separate milestones, one concerning the distillery's opening and the other its whisky.

The setting brings the story together. Beside the loch that supplies its water, Ardnahoe gives physical form to Stewart Laing's ambition for an Islay distillery. The family's blending and bottling background lies behind it; peated malt, long lyne arms and worm tubs define its production equipment. Loch, sound and stillhouse give this young distillery a distinctive place in Islay's whisky landscape.

Sources

1. Ardnahoe Distillery. Our Story.
2. ScotchWhisky.com. Ardnahoe (Whiskypedia).
3. The Single Cask. Ardnahoe Distillery Guide.
4. Whisky Clan. Ardnahoe Distillery: History, Owner and Visitor Guide.
5. Islay Whiskys. Ardnahoe Distillery, Islay.
6. The Spirits Business. Ian Macleod reveals Islay distillery details.
7. Ardnahoe Distillery. Home page.