Blair Athol

Blair Athol Distillery is a distillery in Scotland that distills Blair Athol single malt whisky. It was founded back in 1798 by John Stewart and Robert Robertson under the name of ‘Aldour distillery’. However, it was not very successful and soon had to close. In 1825 the distillery was enlarged and reopened by John Robertson under the name Blair Athol. In 1882, the distillery was bought and extended again buy the Edinburgh blenders Peter Mackenzie & Company who later founded Dufftown Distillery. It became part of the Peter Mackenzie blending house in 1886, but like many distilleries suffered during the economic troubles of the 1930s and fell silent between 1932 and 1949.

In the interim period however Mackenzie (and its estate, which also included Dufftown distillery) had been bought by Perth-based blender, Arthur Bell & Sons.

By the 1970s, Bell’s was being built into the UK’s top-selling blended Scotch and, as a result, Blair Athol was doubled in capacity. In 2017, Blair Athol’s visitor centre was dramatically remodelled and is among the top five most popular distillery visitor destination in Scotland.