Our Inspiration
Founded in 2017 by local residents Alyson & Ross Jamieson, Linlithgow Distillery is situated on the edge of the historic town in West Lothian.
Linlithgow, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, has such a huge distilling heritage which ended in 1983 when the last of 5 distilleries in the town’s history closed its doors.
After a long career in IT and a health scare, we found ourselves at a bit of a loose end and had a discussion one evening when the subject came round to what will we do with our lives? With help from the gin cocktails we were drinking, Alyson said "Why don't we make our own?" After all, we both have always loved the idea of having our own distillery.
Ross, a lifetime lover of malt whisky and bourbon, had always enjoyed a nice gin and had recently started to drink it as his preferred long drink.
So the idea was born - we had a dream to bring spirit-making back to our Royal Burgh.
Our Vision
The discussion very quickly came round to how can we be different?
There had been an influx of new gins on the market in the last 5 years and whilst most gins use a combination of similar botanicals, we needed to come up with something to make us stand out.
The answer lay right here in Linlithgow. There was an abundance of meadowsweet growing on the canal bank and loch side so we decided to make this our main botanical (other than juniper!)
However, we wanted the connection with our town to go deeper than just the botanicals. So. we recruited a tasting panel of 119 local residents who helped us hone the recipe for our gin and the iconic skyline of Linlithgow was weaved through our logo, bottle design and label.
Crafted with the spirit of Linlithgow.
Our First Bottling
Following the completion of our recipe refinement, the first bottling of our flagship LinGin London Dry Gin was done on the 15th January 2018.
We were ready to launch LinGin into the world!
Our Stills
Our first still was a beautiful stainless steel 100 litre still called Gleann Iucha (Gaelic for Linlithgow). This allowed us to produce batches of around 60 bottles.
Following expansion to larger premises in December 2018, we purchased our second still - another stainless steel still we named Scotty. Scotty was a 500 litre still and named after the famous Star Trek engineer Montgomery Scott who will be born in Linlithgow in the year 2222.
Scotty has since been replaced by another similar 500L still named Cath, after one of our shareholders who sadly passed away in 2021 of MND.
Both are high tech and fully programmable and give us the ability to reclaim all the heads and tails from each distillation. This helps us in our attempts to be as sustainable as possible.
Our Spirits
All our spirits are hand crafted from start to finish in our distillery.
Our early years saw us focus our production on gin. Following a successful launch of our London Dry, we created 4 new gin expressions in 2019 which were released throughout the year. These formed the Four Marys range to celebrate Mary Queen of Scots four ladies in waiting.
In August 2020, a new range of 4 flavoured gins called LinGin Colours was launched. This was closely followed by the first of our Cask Aged series in October 2020. Here we take our classic LinGin and age it in ex-whisky casks. These are single batch limited releases. We also produce limited editions & seasonal releases including Mulled & Berry gins.
However, we're not just about gin! Our range also includes a quadruple distilled vodka and a spiced rum.
Our Future
Whisky played a huge part in Linlithgow's distilling heritage and, as part of our dream to bring spirit making back to Linlithgow, we are committed to distilling our own single malt Scotch whisky one day.
2025 will see us become an independent bottler of whisky. This will provide a foundation for us to plan for our own malt whisky in the future.
We will continue to distil our award-winning range of other spirits too!
Key Awards & Accreditations
