The Clydeside Distillery

The Clydeside Distillery is in Glasgow’s old dock Pump House, beside the River Clyde. Its first distillation took place on 6 November 2017, bringing a new use to a building whose hydraulic machinery once powered the swing bridge at Queen’s Dock.[1][3]

What The Clydeside Distillery is known for

Clydeside’s defining feature is the connection between its building, its founders and Glasgow’s working waterfront. According to the distillery’s own account, the Pump House supplied hydraulic power for the dock’s swing bridge, while Customs and Excise watched over whisky exports loaded at the docks.[1] Whisky therefore belonged to this waterfront’s trading history before it became the building’s purpose.

The family connection makes the setting more than an attractive conversion. Trade accounts identify John Morrison, Tim Morrison’s great-grandfather, with the construction of the Pump House and Queen’s Dock; Tim opened the distillery in 2017.[1][5][6] The continuity is between generations and an industrial site, not between an old distilling operation and a reopened one.

That distinction is worth keeping. The Pump House’s earlier work was moving a bridge, not making spirit, and the whisky production timeline begins in 2017.[1][3] Clydeside’s interest lies in how a maritime building acquired a different working life without losing the family connection behind its original construction.

From dock machinery to a distillery

The Pump House was built in 1877 by John Morrison of the building firm Morrison and Mason, according to the trade history.[5] Its practical role explains its position beside the old dock entrance: the machinery served the swing bridge through which shipping passed.[1] The building was part of the dock’s operation, rather than simply an office overlooking it.

The wider dock landscape changed substantially after shipping declined. A trade account records that Queen’s Dock was filled in during 1977 using rubble from the demolished St Enoch Station.[5] That change helps explain why the present setting cannot be read as an intact version of the nineteenth-century dock.

The Pump House survived, but whisky was not its immediate replacement industry. Its intervening uses included an Indian restaurant, an Italian restaurant, a contractor’s office and a visitor centre for the Tall Ship.[5] Those occupations belong to the building’s history just as much as its original machinery or its later conversion.

Morrison Glasgow Distillers bought the site in 2011. The leadership recorded for that year comprised Tim Morrison as chairman, Andrew Morrison as commercial director and Glen Moore as managing director.[5] These are historical roles at the acquisition stage, not a statement of the company’s present management.

Planning approval followed in 2014, with a revised application approved in 2015. Conversion began on 1 August 2016, after problems excavating the infilled dock had delayed construction.[5] The ground beneath the project was therefore part of its history in a very literal sense.

Story box: A family returns to the Pump House

Founding story: Morrison Glasgow Distillers bought the former Pump House in 2011; first distillation followed on 6 November 2017. The founder and first licence date are not documented in the supplied sheet. Sources: site acquisition and first distillation.

Turning point: Conversion began on 1 August 2016, moving the building towards whisky production after its intervening restaurant, office and visitor-centre uses. Source: building chronology.

Key person: John Morrison, Tim Morrison’s great-grandfather, is identified in the trade account with the construction of the Pump House. Source: family and building connection.

Documented record: The connection joins the family involved in building the dock infrastructure with the family behind the distillery. It does not establish an earlier distillery inside the Pump House. Sources: the distillery’s own account and trade history.

Claim-source mapping: Acquisition, conversion and family relationship are assigned to the trade history; the first production date is assigned to Scotchwhisky.com; the building’s hydraulic function is assigned to the producer’s account.

Last checked: 7 November 2026.

Verdict badge: The family connection

Claim: The family behind Clydeside has an ancestral connection to the construction of the dock and Pump House.

Verdict: Documented

What the record shows: The supplied record matches the producer’s family account with trade reporting about John and Tim Morrison.

Evidence against or gap: The separate question of Queen’s Dock’s construction date remains disputed.

Earliest known source: Not established from the sources checked.

Sources: The Clydeside Distillery, Our Story, undated; Scottish Outposts, The Clydeside Distillery, Glasgow, undated.

Last checked: 7 November 2026.

Water from Loch Katrine, not the Clyde

The river supplies the setting, but not the distillery’s production water. Clydeside identifies its source as soft water from Loch Katrine, and the trade account describes a piped journey of about 65 km.[1][5] A photograph of the waterfront can therefore suggest the wrong answer to a straightforward production question.

There is another family connection here. The distillery’s own history says that John Morrison also helped raise Loch Katrine, while the supplied record connects the Morrison firm with the water supply now used at Clydeside.[1][5] The dock building and the water source are separate parts of the same industrial family history.

That is a more useful way to understand the heritage than a general appeal to ancestry. The relevant connections concern construction, water infrastructure, shipping and whisky businesses. They explain why this particular building and this particular family came together, without needing a clan story.

Designing the spirit

Distilling consultant Dr Jim Swan helped design what the trade account calls a “light but fruity spirit”.[5] This is an account of the intended spirit character, not a tasting note from this website and not a promise that every mature release will taste alike.

The wording also gives a useful distinction between production intention and finished whisky. It tells the reader what the distillery project was trying to achieve at the design stage. It does not, by itself, establish the aroma, texture or finish of a named bottling.

For Clydeside, the available record is strongest on the people, building and early chronology. Those are the firm foundations for understanding the distillery here; a detailed account of individual releases would need evidence specific to those whiskies rather than an expansion of the original design description.

Production timeline

The important dates separate buying a site, converting a building, making spirit and launching whisky. At Clydeside, those were distinct events spread across a decade.[1][3][5]

The distinction between the two November 2017 dates matters particularly. First distillation records the start of production, while the visitor-centre opening records a public-facing milestone.[3][5] Neither should be substituted for the other when describing when Clydeside began.

The 2021 launch is a third milestone, not another version of the opening date. It marks the first single malt release in the producer’s account, after the building had already been converted and distillation had begun.[1]

The name and the Glasgow distinction

The project was initially intended to take the Glasgow distillery name. According to the trade history, construction delays allowed the Glasgow Distillery Company to open first, and this project instead became Clydeside.[5] The names consequently identify different distilleries, not alternative names for the same operation.

This is also why broad claims about being Glasgow’s first new distillery need care. The useful, supported point is the sequence: the Glasgow Distillery Company opened before Clydeside.[5] Clydeside’s own story is distinctive enough without attaching a sweeping city-wide first to it.

Its name directs attention to what is specific about the place: the river frontage, former dock entrance and surviving Pump House. Those details provide a clearer introduction than a claim whose meaning changes according to whether it concerns Glasgow generally, its waterfront or a particular span of years.

Where to go next

• The Glasgow Distillery: distinguish the other Glasgow distillery named in Clydeside’s development story.
• Auchentoshan: continue exploring the distilleries grouped within the Lowland hub.
• Glenkinchie: follow another individual distillery reference in the same hub.

Sources

[1] The Clydeside Distillery. Our Story. Undated web page, edition supplied in the verified fact sheet, checked November 2026. https://www.theclydeside.com/our-whisky/our-story/

[3] Scotchwhisky.com. Clydeside. Undated reference entry, edition supplied in the verified fact sheet, checked November 2026. https://scotchwhisky.com/whiskypedia/10529/clydeside/

[5] Scottish Outposts. The Clydeside Distillery, Glasgow. Undated web article, edition supplied in the verified fact sheet, checked November 2026. https://scottishoutposts.co.uk/clydeside-distillery/

[6] Whisky Monkeys. Clydeside Distillery: Where Glasgow's maritime past meets whisky. Undated web article, edition supplied in the verified fact sheet, checked November 2026. https://whiskymonkeys.com/en/sections/clydeside-distillery-where-glasgows-maritime-past-meets-whisky-distillery-thursday

This article is desk research based on the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing the producer’s account from trade reporting.

Last checked: November 2026