Annandale

We did the extended tour with our lovely guide, Alistair. He was quite knowledgeable and very friendly. We were the only ones who had booked that day so we had the place all to ourselves. He was quite keen to share his knowledge with us and happily answered all our questions. Popped over to the restaurant after and lunch was splendid. Thank you to all who made our experience so enjoyable.

Went for a tour of the distillery with Freddie. He was a wonderful tour guide, incredibly knowledgeable. Really enjoyed our visit. The tour was also fairly priced as we got some goodies to take away. The distillery itself was beautiful and had a great amount of history to it. Loved our Saturday visit!

This is a magnificent and spectacular Whiskey Distillery near Annan and is certainly one of the best Whiskey Distilleries in the Lowlands and South West Scotland. The Distillery itself started in 1836 by a local businessman only to be took over by Johnnie Walker who produced whiskey at the site till 1918 where it was mothballed and then a couple rescued the site in 2007 and the Distillery opened in 2014. When you can visit the site you can what an amazing job the couple have done in rescuing the site bringing up to modern standards and they have done this without without damage the Heritage of the buildings which still delightfully maintain their historic appearance giving you a flavour of the historic nature of the site, which is absolutely brilliant. Tours of the Distillery last 1 hour and cost £25 for Adults and during the tour you learn about the history of the site as a former Distillery from its beginnings, closure and resurrection as a Distillery in the present, which is delivered in a very informative and interesting making it thoroughly enthralling, fascinating and intriguing. During the tour you also learn about the whole process from wheat grain all the way through to washing and then distilling as a spirit, which is again fascinating and intriguing to learn about and also very informative. On the tour you can visit the wash room and still room where you can see how elements of the grain such as wort is washed and also the still room where the fermented mixture is placed in the copper stills and distilled into a spirit and then placed into the casks further down giving you a full picture of the whiskey, which is thoroughly enlightening and intriguing. The tour finishes in the Bonded Warehouse where you can see an array of different casks and you can learn about the different casks that whiskey is stored in such as The Bourbon and Sherry Casks to allow it to mature and give it some interesting flavours and in the bonded warehouse you taste of the whiskeys that they have on offer such as 'The Man O' Words' (Non-peated whiskey) and ' The Man O' Swords' (peated whiskey) which make for a spectacular taste. There is some interesting foundations and old chimney to see at the entrance giving you an idea of how the former Distillery at the site functioned. The Maltings Cafe sells a wonderful range of food and drink at reasonable prices and you can pre-book online to reserve in the Cafe and see the menus, which is great. The shop as well sells wonderful range of whiskies and also merchandise at reasonable prices. From the tour as well you can pick up a small leaflet, pen, lanyard and small snifter glass, which is a nice pleasant accessory and accompaniment to the visit. Overall is this is a throughly excellent and marvellous, which makes for a very intriguing and interesting day out.