History and Location
History and Location
Jackton Distillery sits on a former family farm in Jackton, South Lanarkshire, just outside East Kilbride, land the Kean family had farmed for generations before James Kean, whose background is in construction and property development, decided to build a distillery there for his own family to enjoy together. The site was registered as a company in 2017, and the family spent several years converting the farm buildings, including turning an old sports hall into the main stillhouse, before laying down their first cask in February 2020.
The distillery takes its name from the small village of Jackton nearby, and belongs to the broader cluster of newer producers reshaping the Lowland whisky region alongside neighbours like Glasgow Distillery and Clydeside, both a short drive away in Glasgow itself.
Today the distillery is run by three of the Kean siblings, Jaynie, Claragh and Jacob, as directors, with Jaynie as managing director. The brand name itself has a playful origin story: RAER is “rear” spelled backwards, taken from an early family photo project, and doubles as the Scots word for “rare.”
For its first several years Jackton operated with no public access at all. That changed in summer 2024, when the distillery opened its doors with tours, a tasting bar, and even overnight accommodation, followed by a wedding and events offering on the same site. A wine experience themed around the Auld Alliance, using wine sourced from France, followed in 2025.
Production
Jackton runs a genuine grain-to-glass model. Barley was originally sourced from local farms, but production has since grown enough that the family now grows it on their own farms in Ayrshire, around 300 tonnes a year, with roughly a tonne a day going into production. In 2025 the distillery brought its own malt house online, using two five-tonne rotating drums, and opened it to the public as part of Glasgow’s Doors Open Days that year.
The stillhouse setup is unusually varied for a distillery this young. Beyond the standard wash and pot still, Jackton also runs a Hungarian-made Hagyo still, a “universal” still capable of producing whisky distillate, rum, or gin, and a Kothe 4-plate continuous still used to vapour-infuse spirits with botanicals. Mashing is split across three different systems too: a traditional mash tun, a semi-lauter tun, and a whirlpool vessel borrowed from brewing, which lets the team make beer on site as well. The idea behind the variety is resilience, letting production continue across whisky, gin, beer and vodka even if any one category needs to slow down.
New make spirit is filled into a range of cask types, with a particular fondness for interesting sherry casks (Fino, Oloroso and PX), alongside French Chambord wine casks, sourced through Jackton’s exclusive partnership with the Chambord estate. In 2021, Jackton became the first Scotch whisky distillery to fill casks from Chambord, used for both whisky and a barrel-aged gin. Spent grain from the process is repurposed as cattle feed and fertiliser.
Beyond whisky, the site also produces gin and vodka, and since 2023 has partnered with McLean’s Gin, a fellow South Lanarkshire producer based in Strathaven, distributing McLean’s alongside its own spirits.
Jackton Whiskies
Jackton’s whisky story is still being written. The distillery’s inaugural single malt has been quietly maturing on-site since the first cask was laid down in 2020, the culmination of its grain-to-glass journey from barley to bottle, and has not yet been officially released. We’ll update this section with tasting notes and details as soon as it is.
In the meantime, the core range available now is built around blended Scotch:
- RAER Original Blended Scotch Whisky – the flagship blend
- RAER Oloroso Expression – finished in first-fill Oloroso sherry casks
- RAER PX Expression – finished in Pedro Ximenez sherry casks
- RAER Chambord Cask Aged Scotch Whisky – finished in casks sourced from the Chambord estate in France, tied to the distillery’s 2021 first as the first Scotch whisky producer to use them
Jackton also produces Jackton Gin, Jackton Rosé Gin, Something Blue Wedding Gin, and Jackton Vodka under its own name rather than the RAER brand.
The distillery has picked up a solid trophy case for a young operation: Best Blended Scotch at the Scottish Whisky Awards in both 2022 and 2023, two Great Taste Awards, two World Whisky Awards, two London Spirits Awards, and a shortlisting for both Distillery of the Year and Tourism Destination of the Year in 2025.
Distillery info:
Detail |
Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Jackton Distillery |
| Region | Lowland |
| Logo |  |
| Status | active |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Water source | On-site water source |
| Owned by | Raer Whisky Ltd |
| Address |
Hayhill Road, |
| Visitor centre | Yes, tours, tastings, bar and overnight accommodation |
| Website | https://raer.co.uk |
| https://www.twitter.com/raerwhisky | |
| https://www.facebook.com/raerwhisky | |
| Community | N/A |
| Map |
Distillery Setup:
Component |
Capacity |
Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Mash tun | 1 tonne | 2 (1 traditional mash tun, 1 semi-lauter tun) |
| Washback | ? litres | ? (Stainless steel) |
| Wash still | 5,000 litres | 1 |
| Spirit Still | 2,000 litres | 1 |
| Expected yearly output in LPA (Litres of pure alcohol) | ? |