Struie Distillery
Dornoch Distillery – Dornoch South
Dornoch South update 31/10/2024
Dornoch South has a name! We’ll put out an announcement soon.
We’ve made further progress, working through the building warrant stage and preparing for tender.
We sunk a borehole and have plenty of water, electrical grid connection is organised.
Archaeological trenching will finish this week, thankfully nothing interesting has been found so far.
Patent application is in for equipment for and systems that optimises energy efficiency for pot still distilleries working with heat upgrading systems.
Company restructuring completed with Dornoch Castle Hotel coming into the group.
Current timeline should have us beginning construction proper in March/April 2025.
05/02/2024 – Update
We are currently progressing with the building warrant work and have enlisted firms for various aspects, including civil engineering, mechanical and electrical engineering, renewable energy design, archaeological surveys, borehole drilling, and more.
According to our current schedule, construction is anticipated to commence in late 2024 or early 2025, with production capability expected by late 2025 or early 2026.
Up to this point, we have been self-funding the project. However, the substantial financial requirements of a project of this magnitude exceed our available funds. We express our gratitude to everyone who participated in our archive sale, as the proceeds provided a significant boost, enabling us to maintain the project’s momentum without any slowdown.
An equity seed round is scheduled for April/May, and we have already identified a pool of potential investors, many of whom have a personal connection and a history of business dealings with us.
As we continue to mitigate risks associated with the project, we are exploring the possibility of an additional equity raise through a crowdfunding platform, catering to a diverse range of budgets.
To address common inquiries:
- Dornoch Distillery will remain operational, undergoing a few upgrades and a modest expansion in the future.
- Dornoch Castle Hotel is no longer on the market. We are set to take over later this year, with plans for renovations and improvements during the winter. Colin and Ros Thompson will remain as shareholders in our businesses.
We extend our sincere thanks to all who have supported us thus far.
12/09/2023
Planning permission granted.
On land on Dornoch South, we are building our 2nd distillery in order to take the lessons learned from almost 7 years of distilling at Dornoch Distillery and apply them on a larger scale. Dornoch Distillery exists to make a whisky based on old-style production, focusing on brewing yeast strain and heritage barley varieties combined with long fermentations and slow distillation.
The new distillery will have an off-grid capacity of over 200,000 LPA with equipment capable of up to 400,000 LPA with external energy supplements and/or increased renewable energy generation.
The distillery will achieve best-in-class energy efficiency to balance below-average yield figures because of our production philosophy and points of differentiation.
The site includes the conversion of Dornoch’s old Gas Works building to a shop and visitor centre, 2 new warehouses and facilities for us to increase our bottling and logistics capacity.
Dornoch Distillery will continue to operate. Some modest upgrades and a small expansion are planned.
We have made our plans for Dornoch South available below & via the following links.
- Pre-planning community consultation document
- Site masterplan
- 3D renders of the gasworks building 1
- 3D renders of the gasworks building 2
- 3D renders of the gasworks building 3
- 3D renders of the distillery building 1
- 3D renders of the distillery building 2
If you have any questions please email info@dornochdistillery.com or alternatively please visit us at our Station Square, Dornoch, shop if you would like to discuss the plans.
