Lochside

The Lochside distillery was founded in 1957 by Joseph Hobbs on what was once the site of the 1781-built James Deuchar Brewery. Established as a distillery of both malt and grain as well as a blending and bottling facility, Lochside had four pot stills and a Coffey... still for grain distillation. Joseph ran the distillery under MacNab Distilleries Ltd until November of 1973, at which point it was acquired by Destilerias y Crianza del Whisky SA of Madrid, a subsidiary of Pedro Domecq Sherry.

Under the Spanish ownership, Lochside became a component of the Macnab’s blend. In 1992, Pedro Domecq was acquired by Allied Distillers and Lochside was closed shortly after. The warehousing facilities remained for some time, though they were, in turn, closed five years later. Lochside drew its waters from a borehole aquifer beneath the distillery. The spirit was distilled in two pairs of stills and then matured in ex-bourbon casks.

Permission was granted to demolish the distillery in 2004, though shortly after a fire broke out and destroyed the buildings. What was left has been demolished and a DIY centre now stands in its place. Naturally, official releases are hard to come by; the closest thing being a bottling named Macnab, not to be confused with the blend that Lochside was component of, though both have the same name. There have, however, been independent releases.

Read more