The chosen location for the Kingsbarns Distillery is the late 18th century East Newhall Farm Steading on the historic Cambo Estate just outside the charming conservation village of Kingsbarns.
Kingsbarns is situated a mere 15 minutes drive south east of St Andrews, the home of golf, and three miles North West of the beautiful harbour of Crail, the gateway to the East Neuk of Fife’s picturesque fishing villages. Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, is just over an hours drive away.
View Proposed site of Kingsbarns Distillery in a larger map
Our site is surrounded by some of the richest agricultural land in Scotland, much of it barley, and overlooks the world famous Kingsbarns Golf Links with the North Sea and Bell Rock Lighthouse beyond. The course attracts around 25,000 golfers a year and is established as one of Scotland’s finest links courses. It hosts the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in October every year, one of the biggest events on the European Tour, and this year for the first time is a final qualifying course for the British Open at St Andrews.
Our future visitors will be able to walk directly from the Distillery through the magical Cambo Woods, over the Burn to the Gardens, Cambo Mansion House and on to the magnificent Golf Links, Beach and popular Fife Coastal Path.
In whisky geography terms the Kingsbarns Distillery is located in the Lowlands. Today we tend to think of the Scottish Lowland whisky-producing region as something of a ‘poor relation’ of the higher profile and more glamorous Highlands and Islands. But there was a time when the Lowlands were the powerhouse of Scotch whisky production, and way back in 1797 there were 31 Lowland distilleries in operation. Remarkably, they produced 82 per cent of all whisky legally made in Scotland that year. This was despite the fact that there were almost twice as many Highland distilleries.
Over time, however, the area became best known for the large-scale distillation of grain spirit for blending purposes, and just a few years ago, the region boasted only two working malt whisky distilleries, namely Auchentoshan near Glasgow and Glenkinchie, south of Edinburgh. The situation improved slightly with the re-commissioning of Bladnoch, near Wigtown in south-west Scotland, during 2000, followed by the opening of Fife’s private farm-based Daftmill distillery in 2005.
The Lowlands produces gentle, light and floral whiskies, often very dry and devoid of peat. They are commonly referenced as feminine drams, ‘the Lowland Ladies’. At Kingsbarns we are departing from this traditional lowland flavour and will aim to produce a lightly peated, full bodied, rich whisky with a big finish and in doing so offer something truly unique and outstanding to whisky lovers
As Daftmill does not at present offer a visitor experience our nearest competitors will all lie outwith the Kingdom of Fife over an hours drive away from St Andrews and include Tullibardine, Glenturret, Glenkinchie, Edradour and Aberfeldy.
