The Macallan

Type: Distillery and brand

Six Forsyths workers spent six months making the small copper stills for The Macallan’s new distillery.[10] The building is striking on a different scale: architectural and trade accounts describe a structure assembled from 380,000 separate parts, with an undulating timber roof.[4][5] Small stills and sherry-seasoned oak remain at the heart of this Speyside distillery’s identity.[6][12]

The Macallan stands on the left bank of the River Spey, opposite Craigellachie. The producer dates its foundation by Alexander Reid to 1824; the distillery building completed in 2018 is the latest chapter in that history.[1][3][5]

What The Macallan is known for

“Curiously small” stills and sherry-seasoned oak from Jerez define The Macallan’s production story. Trade histories connect its established cask policy with Roderick Kemp, who bought the distillery in 1892 after previously being a co-owner of Talisker.[6][12]

The stills make the spirit; the selected oak provides its maturation setting. Alongside them sits a longstanding association with Golden Promise barley. Whisky.fr describes The Macallan’s attachment to that variety, a historical connection rather than confirmation of the grain used in every present-day production run.[12]

Barley, copper and oak offer a more revealing introduction to the distillery than a roll call of celebrated bottles. They describe its production history, not a uniform taste across every Macallan bottling; this account does not present a tasting of an individual release.

From Elchies to The Macallan

The Macallan’s name connects it to an old parish whose ruined church and graveyard survive within the distillery grounds.[7][8][11] That tangible link to the landscape is distinct from the competing explanations of the name’s linguistic origins.

The distillery itself began as Elchies. The producer names Alexander Reid as its founder and gives the date as 1824.[1] The Gazetteer for Scotland places it on land leased from the Earl of Seafield, on the Spey’s left bank about a mile northeast of Aberlour.[3]

After Reid’s death in 1847, James Shearer Priest and James Davidson ran the distillery until 1868. James Stuart then bought and redeveloped it. Kemp’s purchase in 1892 brought another change of control and the name Macallan-Glenlivet.[7][8] These later purchases belong to the business’s development, not its foundation.

The Kemp family trust controlled the distillery for most of a century, according to the trade history supplied for this article.[6] Easter Elchies House, associated with the family as their home, later became the distillery office.[11] The house was therefore more than an estate landmark: it formed part of the working life of the business.

The Macallan’s expansion and single malt identity

The Macallan was expanding long before its present building took shape. Five stills were added in 1954, followed by a new still house with seven more in 1965. By 1975, the distillery had 21 copper stills.[7] The growth in production scale preceded the architectural transformation by decades.

A change of emphasis followed. Trade histories place the shift from supplying blenders towards single malt around 1980, though they do not establish a precise year. The Glenlivet suffix disappeared in 1980, and a historical account identifies The Macallan 18 Year Old in 1984 as the first of a new sequence of single malt releases.[8][12][7]

Ownership changed too. Suntory acquired a quarter of the company in 1986; Highland Distillers took full control in 1996; and Edrington and William Grant & Sons jointly bought Highland Distillers in 1999.[7][6][3] Each name marks a dated stage in the ownership history. None, on its own, establishes the exact current owning entity.

The new distillery and its small stills

An undulating timber roof is the new distillery’s most conspicuous feature. Architectural and trade accounts describe the building’s structure as assembled from 380,000 separate parts, with repeated production spaces beneath the complex roof.[4][5] It gave an older business a markedly different architectural setting.

Edrington commissioned the project in 2012, and construction ran from 2014 to 2018.[5][3] Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners designed the distillery; Robertson Construction of Elgin carried out the build.[4][5]

Inside, the equipment came from Forsyths, the Scottish coppersmiths associated with Macallan’s stills since the 1950s.[5] The 2018 production account describes three still houses, each with four wash stills and eight spirit stills arranged in a circle: 36 stills altogether.[10] This is the equipment recorded at the time, not a current survey.

The arrangement matters as much as the total. The project multiplied groups of stills rather than making the story simply one of larger individual vessels.[10] The small stills, with their months of work by Forsyths, remained central to the new production setting.

First spirit ran from the new stills in December 2017. The visitor experience opened on 2 June 2018, after distillation had begun.[5] Anyone planning a visit should check the official website for booking, accessibility and age conditions rather than treating the opening date as confirmation of present access.

Production timeline

From Reid’s foundation to the first spirit in the new building, these are the principal recorded production milestones. The equipment entries describe their dates, rather than confirming which installations remain in use.

Story box: Kemp and the cask policy

Founding story: The producer dates Alexander Reid’s foundation to 1824. The Gazetteer records that the distillery occupied land leased from the Earl of Seafield. Sources: producer’s account, Gazetteer for Scotland.

Turning point: Roderick Kemp bought the distillery in 1892 and renamed it Macallan-Glenlivet. Source: Forbes history.

Claim: Kemp began the sherry cask policy that became central to Macallan’s identity.

Verdict: Documented

What the record shows: Trade histories connect Kemp with the established sherry cask policy. The evidence concerns the policy’s history, rather than a tasting observation or a claim about every subsequent release. Sources: The Single Cask, Whisky.fr.

Evidence against or gap: The supplied record does not establish precisely when the policy began.

Earliest known source: Not established from the sources checked.

Claim-source mapping: The accounts cover distinct parts of the story: the producer records Reid’s foundation, the Gazetteer the land lease, and Forbes Kemp’s purchase and renaming. The two trade histories support the cask-policy connection.

Last checked: Day not recorded; November 2026.

Common mistakes

Calling it Scotland’s oldest distillery

The Macallan dates its foundation to 1824. The supplied history explicitly rejects the claim that it is Scotland’s oldest distillery.[8]

Crediting the building to Norman Foster

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners designed the new distillery, not Norman Foster.[4][5]

Treating 2018 as the start of production

First spirit from the new stills came in December 2017; the visitor opening followed in June 2018.[5] Foundation, commissioning, first spirit and public opening are separate milestones.

Where to go next

• Aberlour: continue with a nearby Speyside distillery.
• Craigellachie: explore the distillery associated with the settlement opposite Macallan.
• The Glenlivet: discover the separate distillery whose name appears in Macallan’s historical suffix.

Sources

1. The Macallan. About the Macallan. Producer’s account, undated; supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.themacallan.com/en/about
2. The Macallan. About The Estate. Producer’s account, undated; supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.themacallan.com/en/experience-the-macallan/distillery/about-the-estate
3. Gazetteer for Scotland. Macallan Distillery. Undated; supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst11895.html
4. Dezeen. Rolling wildflower roof covers Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners-designed Scottish distillery. 22 May 2018. https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/22/rogers-stirk-habour-partners-architecture-macallan-distillery-scotland/
5. DRAM Scotland. New Macallan Distillery breaks the boundaries of distillery design. 23 May 2018. https://dramscotland.co.uk/2018/05/23/new-macallan-distillery-breaks-the-boundaries-of-distillery-design/
6. The Single Cask. The Macallan Distillery: History, Whisky and Cask Ownership. Undated; supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.thesinglecask.co.uk/blogs/distilleries/the-macallan
7. Whisky Monkeys. The Macallan Whisky: A Brief History. Undated; supplied record checked November 2026. https://whiskymonkeys.com/en/sections/the-macallan-whisky-a-brief-history-how-the-brand-became-a-luxury-icon-distillery-thursday
8. Forbes. Macallan Turns 200 As The Whisky Market Faces Uncertainty. 20 January 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marklittler/2024/01/20/the-macallan-200-years-young-and-still-leading-the-market/
9. Spirited Asia. The modern spirit of the new Macallan distillery. May 2018. https://www.spiritedasia.com/2018/05/modern-spirit-new-macallan-distillery/
10. Difford’s Guide. History: The Macallan Distillery. Undated; supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.diffordsguide.com/producers/536/the-macallan-distillery/history
11. Whisky.fr. History of the Macallan distillery. Undated; supplied record checked November 2026. https://www.whisky.fr/en/menu/blog/articles-on-whisky/history-macallan-distillery

This article was researched from the supplied fact sheet and its source extracts.

Last checked: November 2026