Isle of Barra Distillery
On the remote Hebridean island of Barra, in the harbour town of Castlebay, Isle of Barra Distillers has spent the best part of a decade building a spirits brand before it ever puts whisky in a cask. Founded in January 2017 by husband-and-wife team Michael and Katie Morrison, both native to the island, the distillery began not with whisky but with gin, producing the award-winning Barra Atlantic Gin alongside Hebridean Vodka and Island Dark Rum, each one distilled and bottled on site using hand-harvested carrageen seaweed foraged from the surrounding shores.
Whisky was always the long game. The Morrisons’ plan to bring single malt production back to Barra has been years in the making, and ground was finally broken on a new, purpose-built whisky distillery in early 2025, following a brief delay after an archaeological find on the site. The £12 million project, once complete, is expected to produce around 200,000 litres of pure alcohol a year, with capacity to fill 1,600 casks annually, and will include a visitor centre, retail unit and café. It will be the first whisky distillery ever built on the island. Once it’s running, the existing gin operation is set to wind down as production shifts to the new site.
Ahead of groundbreaking, the distillery introduced its first whisky releases: a Barra Blended Malt and a 10 Year Old Blended Malt, giving whisky drinkers an early taste of the brand while the island waits for its own stills to come online, expected to begin distilling in late 2026 with the distillery opening in 2027.
Barra’s story echoes another young Island project a little further north: Isle of Raasay Distillery, which was the first legal distillery on its own island when it opened in 2017, the same year Barra’s company was incorporated. Both distilleries share the challenge of building a single malt reputation from scratch on a small, remote community. Similarly, Lagg Distillery on Arran shows how a young Island distillery can carve out its own identity while its whisky is still maturing.
Isle of Barra Whiskies
As the distillery has not yet begun distilling its own single malt, there is no core single malt range to report yet. The two current whisky releases are:
| Release | Type |
|---|---|
| Barra Blended Malt | Blended malt Scotch |
| 10 Year Old Blended Malt | Blended malt Scotch |
Distillery info:
Detail |
Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Isle of Barra Distillery |
| Region | Island |
| Logo |  |
| Status | Under construction |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Water source | ? |
| Owned by | Isle of Barra Distillers Ltd |
| Address |
Castlebay Business Estate, |
| Visitor centre | N/A |
| Website | https://isleofbarradistillers.com |
| https://www.twitter.com/BarraDistillers | |
| https://www.facebook.com/BarraDistillers/ | |
| Community | N/A |
| Map |
Distillery Setup:
Component |
Capacity |
Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Mash tun | ? | ? |
| Washback | ? litres | ? |
| Wash still | ? litres | ? |
| Spirit Still | ? litres | ? |
| Expected yearly output in LPA (Litres of pure alcohol) | 200,000 |