Qualla: Tullibardine Distillery

Tullibardine Distillery: Introduction

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The water comes down from the Ochil Hills through the Danny Burn, off Devonian-age volcanic rock that runs filtered and soft by the time it reaches Blackford. The village has been a brewing site since at least the 16th century, when Bernard's Brewery here supplied James IV's coronation ale. Tullibardine Distillery, founded in 1949 on the same water source, is a comparative newcomer. Its first half-century was rocky, its second half-century has been a quieter story of recovery and reinvention. Few distilleries in Scotland have changed hands as often or stayed open through it.

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Tullibardine Distillery: Born in Postwar Scotland

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Tullibardine was built in 1949, when British whisky was emerging from the rationing of the Second World War and demand was beginning to pull ahead of supply. The distillery was designed by William Delme-Evans, who would go on to build several other modernist postwar distilleries,...

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Tullibardine Distillery: Mothballed and Sold

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1995 Whyte and Mackay mothballed Tullibardine. Mothballing is the polite term for stopping production while keeping the buildings, the equipment, and the maturing stocks in place against the possibility of a future revival. Many Scottish distilleries entered the 1990s in this ...

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Tullibardine Distillery: A French Owner

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 2011 the distillery was sold again, this time to the French firm Picard Vins and Spiritueux, a wine and spirits group based in the Vaucluse. In 2013 Picard created a dedicated spirits entity called Terroirs Distillers to hold its whisky interests. The French ownership has mean...

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Tullibardine Distillery: Whisky on the Margins

Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Blackford is not on the well-trodden Speyside whisky trail. It sits at the southern edge of the Highland region, close to the geological fault that the Ochil escarpment marks, and visitor numbers reflect that. The site is easy to reach by car from the A9 between Stirling and Pert...

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