4th Whisky Era -- Annandale Distillery Company (2007 - )
The distillery buildings were in a rather sorry state when acquired in 2007 by the newly-formed Annandale Distillery Company Limited. During the past year, we've worked very hard to stabilise those structures that were in imminent danger of collapse (especially the crown of the chimney and the east wall of the mash house) and to minimise the ingression of rain water. In the words of our structural engineer John Addison...... "you didn't buy the Distillery 5 minutes too soon!" We're still in the process of clearing the site but all of the buildings have now been stabilised and stripped of the equipment and detritus of the farming era.
Annandale Distillery is a 'Category B' listed building so Historic Scotland and Dumfries & Galloway Council (our local authority) need to be consulted and must issue formal permissions for every step of the process. Both have been supportive, preferring the restoration of the buildings to their original purpose rather than seeing them demolished or turned into housing (the ignominious fate of too many 'lost' distilleries in Scotland). Indeed, Historic Scotland has offered us a grant which will help in a small but important way to repair some of the existing buildings.
Although we paid a 'very fair' price to acquire the Annandale Distillery site, we're grateful to the Robinson Family for formally consenting to our distillery project, for their stewardship of these precious buildings over the past 20 years (many farmers would have demolished them to prevent them becoming 'listed') and for their neighbourly help and co-operation since then.