Douglas Clement, Kingsbarns Distillery Founder and Visitors Centre Manager first had the idea of creating a Whisky distillery in Fife many years ago, working as a Caddie at Kingsbarns Golf Course:
“Inspired by comments from golfers at Kingsbarns and St Andrews, I knew that there was a real opportunity for a local distillery. I’ve been working on this project for a number of years and it’s great to be standing here today seeing the work begin.
Our distillery and visitor centre has been six years in the making. Thanks to a Scottish Government grant and the backing of the Wemyss Family, construction commenced in Spring 2013 and in October 2014 the final pieces of our distillery jigsaw, the copper pot stills, were finally positioned in their new home”.
Peter Holroyd, Kingsbarns Distillery Manager explains his involvement with the building of the distillery:
“I arrived after the design phase and midway through construction. I worked closely with the project engineer to locate the positions of tanks, pipe work and equipment in such a way that was optimal for process and in a manner that catered well for visitor experience.
For the design of the distillery, traditional copper pot stills were specified but with very long lyne arms in order to maximise the surface area of copper for the spirit vapour travelling to the condensers.”
In future Newsletters we will be publishing articles and stories that explore the details of Kingsbarns from the ingredients that define the distilled wort to the uniquely sourced water and slow distillation method. If you have any particular questions about Kingsbarns or whisky production in general please email founders@kingsbarns.com and we will aim to answer them in upcoming newsletters.
