The distillery, which is still active today, stayed in family ownership until 1941, with periods of great success and periods of full production stoppage. In the late 1800s, there was so much demand for its products that Donald opened a second distillery on site called ‘Nevis’ – both distilleries merged into one in 1908.
When it was taken over by eccentric Canadian Joseph Hobbs, the distillery saw the introduction of a Coffey grain still, allowing it to produce grain and malt whiskies in one place – one of the first distilleries to do so.
It is now owned by Japanese company Nikka, to whom as much of 75% of its annual production goes for use in that company’s own blends and malt releases, which is allowed under Japanese whisky laws. The current capacity is around two millions litres per annum, with a portion of this being heavily peated.