Inverleven

Now woefully bereft of life, the stills of Inverleven fell into perennial silence in 1991. Inverleven was established by Hiram Walker and Sons in 1938 at the Dumbarton complex. The site at Dumbarton is owned by George Ballatine and Son and plays host to continuous stills. This allows the production of both malt and grain whisky. The complex produces the whisky for the Ballantines blended products. Inverleven draws its water from Loch Lomond, and sits by the River Clyde.

The complex lies just below the Highland line, thus Inverleven single malt whisky is of the Lowland variety. Inverleven was never a distillery proper; rather it was a pair of pot stills within Dumbarton. Since 1959 Inverleven also featured whisky from a Lomond still. The Lomond still was designed in 1955 by Arthur Warren, of Hiram Walker, and Alistair Cunningham.

Inverleven was intended to provide whisky for blending, though blenders never took to the Lomond spirit. The same combination of stills was also used to produce another whisky, namely Lomond, though it is not to be confused with that of the Loch Lomond distillery. The Dumbarton complex was mothballed in 2002, though the equipment from Inverleven has not yet breathed its last. Bruichladdich recently decided to reopen the Lochindaal distillery at Port Charlotte and transported the machinery and stills from Inverleven to Islay, thus the legacy continues.