Glen Moray
Type: Distillery
Marsala wine and sherry casks were part of Glen Moray’s early history, according to the producer. This Speyside distillery on the banks of the River Lossie began making spirit in 1897 on a former brewery site. At Bruceland Road, Elgin, it has since grown into what is now described as one of Scotland’s largest malt producers, its history shaped by local barley, changes of ownership and substantial production growth. [1][2][3][5]
From brewery to distillery
Before there was whisky, there was local ale. The site began as the Elgin West Brewery, which Glen Moray says made local ales from 1830. Robert Thorne & Sons ran the brewery, and in 1897 it was converted into a distillery with two stills. Glen Moray was not originally built as a distillery: brewing was the site’s earlier trade. [1][2]
Disputed: when brewing began. The producer gives 1830 as the brewery’s starting date; Maltspedia gives 1828. Both accounts put brewing before distilling, but they differ on the year. The 1830 date followed here is Glen Moray’s own account. [1][3]
Handwritten ledgers in the distillery’s archive record the first spirit running from the stills on 13 September 1897, according to the producer. They give the conversion a precise milestone: the day the former brewery began producing spirit. Glen Moray says this first new make was made entirely from local barley supplied by Gallowcrook Farm, which the distillery later bought in the 1950s. [1]
The producer’s account also records Marsala wine and sherry casks among Glen Moray’s early casks. These belong to its early history, well before the wood finishes introduced in 1999. [1]
Closure and new ownership
Glen Moray closed in 1910 after its owners turned their attention to Aberlour following a fire there. The producer also records a short period of silence during the First World War. The accounts preserve both episodes, though they leave the production chronology between them incomplete. [1][2]
Disputed: the Macdonald & Muir purchase. The buyer is clear; the year is not. Glen Moray dates the purchase to 1920, Maltspedia gives 1923, and Wikipedia places it more broadly during the 1920s. The 1920 date is therefore the producer’s date for the sale to Macdonald & Muir. [1][2][3]
The 1950s brought new equipment and a change of fuel. Glen Moray says two new copper stills and a new stillhouse were added, and that fuel changed from coal to oil. These developments came in the same decade as its purchase of Gallowcrook Farm. Separately, Wikipedia dates the addition of two extra stills to 1958. [1][2]
The maltings changed too. Maltspedia records a Saladin box replacing the floor maltings in 1958. In house malting ended in 1978. The two dates mark different stages in production: replacing the floor maltings changed how barley was malted, while the later date marks the end of malting at the distillery. Alongside the new stills, stillhouse and fuel, these changes reshaped how Glen Moray worked. [3]
Growth and changes of owner
Glen Moray’s reported output reached two million litres a year in 1987, when production moved to seven days a week, according to the producer. That annual output offers a benchmark against the larger capacity figures reported after the expansions of 2012 and 2016. Growth was already under way well before those later upgrades. [1]
The producer dates Glen Moray’s first wood finishes to 1999, naming Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. Those two finishes mark a specific development in the range during the 1990s. [1]
The 2000s brought two changes of owner in quick succession. Glen Moray and Glenmorangie were sold to LVMH in 2004; in 2008, LVMH sold Glen Moray to La Martiniquaise. Maltspedia identifies the current owner as La Martiniquaise-Bardinet. The shared sale in 2004 belongs to Glen Moray’s ownership history, rather than describing its present ownership alongside Glenmorangie. [2][3]
Glen Moray’s production also reaches beyond the single malts bearing its name. Maltspedia identifies it as a main malt component of the Label 5 blend. That blending role sits alongside its own collections and matters when considering the scale of the distillery: the named Glen Moray expressions tell only part of its production story. [3]
Production and capacity
From 2012 to 2023, successive expansions transformed Glen Moray’s reported capacity. The 2012 expansion brought annual capacity to 3,300,000 litres, using three wash stills and three spirit stills. A further expansion in 2016 raised the figure to about 5,500,000 litres a year. Maltspedia also records the installation of thermal vapour recompression around 2016, another production change during this period of growth. [2][3]
After upgrades completed by 2023, Wikipedia reports capacity of 8,500,000 litres from four wash stills and six spirit stills: ten stills in total. Whisky Clan gives the same annual capacity of 8,500,000 litres. The progression from the figures reported in 2012 is substantial, both in capacity and in the number of stills. These are the dimensions of a major malt producer, not a small craft distillery. [2][4]
Disputed: current capacity. Maltspedia gives 8.4 million litres of pure alcohol, while Wikipedia gives 8,500,000 litres. The figures are close rather than identical, and Maltspedia explicitly specifies pure alcohol as its measure. The 8,500,000 litre figure used here follows Wikipedia and Whisky Clan. [2][3][4]
The collections
Port, sherry and Chardonnay finishes joined a Peated Single Malt when the Classic Collection launched in 2014, according to Glen Moray. The producer also credits the collection with Scotch whisky’s first Cabernet Sauvignon cask finish. Together, these releases place cask finishes and peat within the collection’s range. [1]
The Heritage Collection followed in 2016 with 12, 15 and 18 Year Old expressions. Glen Moray records two later additions: a 10 Year Old Fired Oak in 2018 and a 21 Year Old in 2019. These launch dates trace the collection’s development; they do not imply that every expression has remained unchanged since introduction. [1]
Limited editions gained a separate home with the launch of the Curiosity Collection in 2018. Among the projects Glen Moray records is the 2019 Rhum Agricole Cask Finish Project, using casks from the St James distillery in Martinique. That named cask source provides another specific example of the finishes that became part of Glen Moray’s later range. [1]
Sources
- Glen Moray. The story of Glen Moray. Checked November 2026.
- Wikipedia. Glen Moray distillery. Checked November 2026.
- Maltspedia. Glen Moray Distillery. Checked November 2026.
- Whisky Clan. Glen Moray Distillery: History, Owner, Range and Visitor Guide. Checked November 2026.
- Scotch.scot. Glen Moray: location, history and whisky. Checked November 2026.