We are building a remarkable and unique vertical distillery in Leith. The distinctive building comprises not only the distillery and visitor centre, it will also include offices and dining facilities. You can see here the Beacon Roof framework being lifted on to the top of the distillery. The view from here is fantastic!
The location of the new distillery is shown in the dotted lines in the image above, close to the Royal Yacht Brittania.
The 9 floors in the structure are utilised as below.
| Floor | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Floor 9 | Private Dining and Bar |
| Floor 8 | Bar and Restaurant |
| Floor 7 | Private Dining |
| Floor 6 | Shop |
| Floor 5 | Offices |
| Floor 4 | Tour starting area and mash tun |
| Floor 3 | Top of washbacks, lower half of mash tun |
| Floor 2 | Lower half of washbacks, laboratory |
| Floor 1 | Main view of stills |
| Ground Floor | Main entrance |
Take a look at the innovative design in the short video below (no sound).
The distillery are having their stills hand crafted in Elgin. Check out the short video.
When complete, the distillery will produce 400,000 litres of pure alcohol per year as well as welcoming tens of thousands of visitors through the door with a shop and bar. In addition to this, there is lab space for analysis and experimentation with students from Heriot Watt University, offices and facilities, and a number of flexible spaces that can be used for exhibitions and public events.
At the core of the building will be a vertical production process, with grain milling and mashing at the top, leading down through fermentation to distillation at the bottom. Around that, will be a unique experience for our visitors, allowing them to get as close to the process as possible.
All of this will be encased in a beautiful, bold and modern building sitting on Leith’s waterfront – a beacon for cruise ships entering the port and an iconic new structure for Edinburgh.
As a nine-storey structure, in an area with water on one side and the city of Edinburgh on the other, this project is one of the most complex builds in Edinburgh. Building on the water’s edge posed its own challenges, including driving piles in between the existing harbour wall tie rods.
Although the customer hadn’t initially planned to build a vertical distillery, the site for this development is compact and the vertical approach makes the most of the available land. Set over nine floors and containing stills for whisky production, lab spaces for analysis and experimentation, offices and flexible space for exhibitions and events plus a tasting area/shop, there is also a bar and restaurant on the top floor affording spectacular views across Leith, Edinburgh and Fife.
Due to the size of the construction site, major parts of the production equipment are being installed as we build up – the Mash Tun has been installed on the 4 th floor, surrounded by the 7 washbacks that will ferment the wash before it flows down to the stills below. On the 5 th floor are the hot liquor tanks that will hold the warmed water before it begins its journey to become whisky, and the Stills are also in. Most recently, the tower crane has been dismantled and removed in preparation for cladding and roofing – and the Beacon Roof has been installed, which you can watch at the top of the page.