On the windswept west coast of Tiree, the island once known in Gaelic as Tìr an Eòrna, the “Land of Barley”, Isle of Tiree Distillery is bringing legal whisky-making back after more than two centuries. The island was reputedly home to as many as fifty illicit distilling operations before the 1800s, but unlike its Hebridean neighbours it never re-established one, until Isle of Tiree lit its stills for the first time in 2019.
The distillery is the work of Alain Campbell and Ian Smith, two Tiree natives who spent years touring Scotland as traditional folk musicians with the band Trail West, often stopping in at distilleries along the way. They formed Tiree Whisky Company Ltd in 2012 with the aim of preserving the island’s whisky heritage and creating stable local employment outside of touring life. The distillery itself was built in a shed belonging to Smith’s father, and getting it running was no small feat: Tiree’s remoteness meant the stills had to be adapted to run without three-phase power, and the island’s notably hard water needed extra filtration before it could be used.
Production began with Tyree Gin in 2017 (initially contract-distilled in London using Tiree kelp, later brought fully onto the island), and whisky followed once the setup was proven. The first legal single malt distilled on Tiree in over 200 years was released in January 2025, an almost-instant sellout, followed by a rye-forward single grain whisky. Alongside Torabhaig and Isle of Raasay, Isle of Tiree is one of the newest names in a small wave of young Hebridean distilleries putting their islands back on the whisky map.
True to its size, everything at Isle of Tiree is handcrafted. Malted barley is hand-mixed in mesh mash bags and hoisted into an oak mash tun (a repurposed former sherry cask), the wort ferments in stainless steel washbacks, and distillation runs through two handmade copper wash stills sourced from Portugal before a final pass through a 300-litre spirit still. All stills are direct-fired, a nod to the coal and peat once used to heat the island’s illicit stills. The resulting new-make spirit is unpeated and matures in the distillery’s own warehouse, less than 100 metres from the shore, where the Gulf Stream’s mild influence and Tiree’s famous wind make for a distinctive maturation climate.
Visitors can now tour the distillery and its shop and visitor centre, with tastings drawn straight from the cask.
Isle of Tiree Whiskies
As one of Scotland’s smallest and youngest distilleries, producing around 2,000 litres of pure alcohol a year, Isle of Tiree doesn’t yet have an established “core range” in the traditional sense; both releases to date have been small, one-off drops rather than repeating annual bottlings.
- Isle of Tiree First Release (Single Malt): the inaugural whisky, released January 2025 and sold out within minutes. Matured across four cask types including virgin oak, ex-Heaven Hill bourbon, and oloroso sherry.
- Isle of Tiree – Rye (Single Grain): made from a 75% rye, 25% barley mashbill, matured four years in virgin oak and ex-bourbon casks, launched at the distillery’s Hebridean Whisky Festival Open Day.
Distillery info:
Detail |
Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Isle of Tiree Distillery |
| Region | Island |
| Logo |  |
| Status | Active |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Water source | ? |
| Owned by | Tiree Whisky Company Ltd |
| Address |
1a West Hynish, |
| Visitor centre | Yes |
| Website | https://www.tyreegin.com |
| https://www.twitter.com/tyreegin | |
| https://www.facebook.com/tireedistillery | |
| Community | N/A |
| Map |
Distillery Setup:
Component |
Capacity |
Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Mash tun | ? | ? |
| Washback | 1,600 litres | ? (Stainless steel) |
| Wash still | ? litres | 2 (Copper pot |
| Spirit Still | 300 litres | 1 (Copper pot) |
| Expected yearly output in LPA (Litres of pure alcohol) | 2,000 |