A guide to the Lowlands | Scotch whisky regions
This is our guide to The Lowlands, the Scotch whisky region that is probably most underappreciated. From old-school grain giants to a new and exciting era, here's a short history of the region.
Jump to section
Author:
Reading time: 7 minutes
The Lowlands is defined as ‘The area lying to the south of the line dividing [it from] the Highland region.’ You might already know that, and could probably say something about how light, floral, and grassy malt whiskies are made there. But there’s more to the Lowlands than it’s often given credit.
It’s the second-largest Scotch whisky region by area and the largest by volume. The Lowlands date back to the end of the 18th century and, tied with the Highland region, is the oldest recognised whisky region. It was once home to over 100 distilleries, is the bedrock of the Scotch grain whisky industry, and is a hotbed of new talent. Let’s take a deeper look at Scotch whisky’s underrated region.
Taxing early days
The earliest historical reference to whisky in Scotland occurs in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls for 1494, where there is an entry of ‘eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aquavitae’. It’s claimed that this took place at Lindores Abbey, where today a distillery makes whisky in the Lowland region.
During the eighteenth century, distilling whisky for rectification (further distillation) into gin was all the rage. Following the Act of Union in 1707, Scottish distillers, namely in what we recognise now as the Lowlands, had an advantage over the heavily taxed British distillers. Pressure was put on Parliament to raise duties on Scottish distilleries, at a time when Britain was also experiencing a cheap gin problem. In London, consumption reached 3.5m gallons in 1727, by 1735 it was 5.5m (about two pints a week per inhabitant).
What followed was a near century when the drinks industry in Britain was defined by tax and legislation. The Gin Act of 1729, the Gin Act of 1736, the Sale of Spirits Act of 1750, and the Gin Act of 1751 tried to regulate the gin issue. In the Lowlands, there was a duty of £2.10 per gallon of capacity per year, as well as a duty of two shillings per gallon on spirits exported to England. That duty steadily increased and in just 17 years from 1786 to 1803, it increased by a factor of more than 77 times. Such rampant taxation was virtually bankrupting the Scotch industries.
The Highlands and the Lowlands
The cumulative effect was the development of two distinct regions: the Highlands and the Lowlands. Highland distillers went underground, using the landscape to their advantage to illicitly distill characterful malt whiskies away from prying excise eyes. The Lowland distilleries, many located in the urban centers of Glasgow and Edinburgh and its surrounding areas, couldn’t escape the burden of excessive taxations, so the response was to produce huge amounts of spirit to amortize the tax on capacity against ever-higher levels of production.
Leading distillers adopted rapid distillation techniques to evade steep excise duties levied on still capacity and their processes were said to produce a harsh, unpalatable spirit. While it might be adequate for rectifying to make gin, large quantities of this cheap product were supplied to Scottish shops and inns. The first officially recorded export of Scotch outside Scotland was from the first whisky dynasties of Lowland distilleries Haigs and Steins, who were sending whisky to London for rectification into gin in 1777.
By 1786, Scottish distillers controlled a quarter of the London gin market. This obviously didn’t please English distillers, who pressured Parliament to pass the Scottish Distillers Act in 1786, another new wave of duties on exports to England. This was a death knell for the Lowland distillers, export sales declined by more than 90 percent as bankruptcy was rife. The great distilleries of the day (all related to the Stein or Haig families) like Canonmills, Hattonburn, Kilbagie, Kennetpans, Kincaple, Hattonburn, and Lochrin that were responsible for about 50% of the Lowlands production all ceased trading. Among the devastation were also distilleries like Anderston in Glasgow, Underwood near Falkirk, and Cunningham Park in Ayr.
Glenkinchie is one of the few Lowlands malt whisky distilleries that has been open since the 19th century
The rise of the Lowlands
Relief for Lowland whisky makers finally came with the end of the Napoleonic wars, easing Parliament's financial needs. This era of taxation terror had essentially forced distillation to go underground, with illicit whisky making and smuggling commonplace, none of it delivering revenue to the state. In 1816, a year after Waterloo, taxes on whisky were cut to a third, and the use of smaller stills was again allowed in the Lowlands.
Then back to back came the Illicit Distillation Act of 1822 and the Excise Act of 1823. The former imposed severe penalties for illegally producing and distributing whisky in Scotland, and the latter creating a framework that “fundamentally shaped the future of the Scotch Whisky industry as we know it today,” according to the Scotch Whisky Association. The numbers reveal how big an impact this had. In 1826, the number of distilleries registered in Scotland was 264, nearly 100 more than there were in 1824, 167. Distilleries like Auchentoshan and Glenkinchie opened in the Lowlands, the only ones in the region built before 2005 that have never stopped producing whisky.
Another huge moment for the Lowlands, already defined by its use of mixed grains to create whisky and not just malted barley (meaning unmalted barley and wheat primarily) was when Aeneas Coffey patented his ‘continuous’ still in 1830. The Irish rejected it, and the Highlanders too broadly stuck to their pot stills. However, this revolutionary design greatly increased the rate at which whisky could be produced and reduced the cost. A continuous or column still is like a series of pot stills combined in a long, vertical tube that produces a rising vapour that condenses and becomes more enriched with alcohol as it ascends up through the column. It’s supremely efficient at driving alcohol levels up, but also strips a lot of flavour in the process. Pretty useless for malt whisky, then. But not for grain.
Going with the grain
Today across Scotland’s five whisky regions, the Lowlands is the heart of grain whisky production. That process was started in the early to mid-19th century with the introduction of the column still and became a defining aspect of the Lowlands. Huge urban centers of mass grain whisky production.
Cameronbridge was founded in 1824 by John Haig (a descendant of both the Haigh and Stein families we mentioned earlier) in Fife. Cambus distillery can be traced back to 1806, when John Moubray converted a mill in Alloa into a malt distillery, eventually installing two Stein patent stills to distil grain whisky in 1836. Caledonian was built in 1855 in Edinburgh, producing grain whisky from a Coffey still as well as two large pot stills, and for decades was the largest distillery in Scotland. In 1845, Coffey stills were installed at the Port Dundas distillery in Glasgow, originally formed as a pair of distilleries in 1811. Edinburgh’s North British Distillery was built in 1885 to break up Cameronbridge’s monopoly.
The Lowland grain distilleries were also notable for forming the basis of Distillers Company Limited (DCL) in 1887. A precursor to Diageo, the drinks giant of its day was created by the amalgamation of six Lowland grain whisky distilleries: Port Dundas, Carsebridge, Glenochil, Kirkliston, and the aforementioned Cameronbridge and Cambus. The latter distillery played a starring role in the great ‘What is Whisky?’ trial. At the beginning of the 20th century, the malt distillers attempted to remove the legal right to use the word ‘whisky’ to describe grain spirit. DCL obviously couldn’t have that given the monopoly it had on grain whisky and used Cambus to sway public opinion. A front-page advertisement for Cambus Pure Grain Whisky was placed in The Daily Mail In 1906 to ‘give the public the opportunity of judging for themselves what a pure patent-still grain whisky was like’. The malt distillers lost.
Nowhere in Scotland makes as much grain whisky as The Lowlands
The Lowlands style
The big grain distilleries of the Lowlands played a foundational role in the development of the Scotch whisky industry. Technological innovation and large-scale production allowed them to provide the grain backbone of the blended Scotch whisky that went on to rule the world.
Today there are still many great grain distilleries in the area, with Cameronbridge currently the largest grain distillery in Europe, supplying the majority of Diageo's grain requirements, notably for Johnnie Walker whisky, as well as making Gordon’s gin and Smirnoff vodka. This is bolstered by North British, now a joint venture of Diageo and Edrington Group (who own Famous Grouse among others). Strathclyde keeps Chivas Brothers in grain (sadly they demolished Dumbarton in 2017), while La Martiniquaise has Starlaw and William Grant & Sons own Girvan Distillery. Reivers was founded in 2021 by the Mossburn Distillery Co. Only Invergordon and Loch Lomond make grain whisky outside the Lowlands in Scotland.
You can really separate the Lowlands ‘style’ into two categories. Grain whisky, and a style of gentle, floral, sweet malt whisky. The Lowlands isn’t really peat territory, so its whisky never had the smoky, earthy qualities of the Highlands and the islands. In fact, it was prudent to make whisky that contrasted these styles. Distilleries promoted high levels of reflux during distillation, a process of refinement that led to a lighter whisky that was highly prized by blenders as a means to “bring a blend together” and deliver finesse to the liquid. Auchentoshan and Rosebank underlined this style with triple-distilled whisky, unique in the Scotch whisky industry for a long time. Of course, and we will never tire of making this point, regions are at best indicators of flavour, and there are plenty of outliers and exceptions to the rule.
20th century decline
If the 19th century was about malt distilleries riding the wave of tax relief and grain distilleries dominating the Lowland landscape, the 20th century was about strife and decline. Across all our Scotch whisky regions you’ll notice a theme: Prohibition, the Great Depression, and two world wars = not great. Staggering analysis, we know. The whisky industry was obviously devastated by these factors. In the Lowlands, 22 distilleries closed in the 1910s and 1920s.
Lowland distilleries had an early advantage in the 19th century because the south of Scotland is where the big urban centers are, namely Glasgow and Edinburgh. But, much like we saw in Dublin, when the industry busts, it's the distilleries built in urban areas that go first. They have the most demand and are the easiest to sell off to developers. Where once there were 100 producers in the Lowlands, the number rapidly reclined. Devastatingly, the St. Magdalene distillery, a producer of single malt Scotch whisky that operated since 1798, shut down in 1983. Famed ghost distillery Littlemill was mothballed twice, from 1929 to 1931 and again from 1984 to 1989. It was finally demolished in 2004. Another great ghost distillery is Rosebank, which had opened in 1840 but closed in 1993.
Few distilleries were founded in the Lowlands in the 20th century and even they rarely made it. The Kinclaith distillery was built within the Strathclyde grain distillery complex in 1958. The distillery closed in 1975. Girvan distillery too saw an expansion with the Ladyburn distillery built in 1963. It was closed in 1975 and demolished in 1976. With the whisky loch of the 1980s, the Lowland’s malt presence limped into the noughties. Only three malt distilleries saw in the 21st century: Auchentoshan, Glenkinchie, and Bladnoch. Even then the latter experienced closures in the 1990s and mid-2010s.
People have underestimated the Lowlands for too long.
Nothing lowly about the Lowlands
The 21st century, however, has brought brighter days for the Lowlands. Things got off to an intriguing start when it was announced a family-owned farm in Fife was going to produce whisky. The Cuthbert family founded Daftmill Distillery in 2005, but didn’t release whisky until 2013. With a fiercely independent approach that operates whisky production on a seasonal basis, it’s already established quite the reputation, and its whiskies are highly sought after by collectors and enthusiasts alike.
Already established distilleries got plenty of boosts too. Notably, the resurrection of Rosebank Distillery was completed in July of 2023, when production commenced for the first time in 30 years. Bladnoch Distillery was revived in 2015 by Australian businessman David Prior and has since undergone refurbishment and expansion, while a multi-million-pound visitor centre opened at Glenkinchie Distillery in 2020 as one of four ‘corner’ distilleries – alongside Clynelish, Cardhu, and Caol Ila, – formed a network of visitor experiences connected to Johnnie Walker (all four contribute to the blends) and its swanky Princes Street tourist hub in Edinburgh.
But arguably the most exciting thing about the Lowlands today is the raft of new malt whisky distilleries that are opening. Daftmill, it turned out, was just the beginning, and from the drip came a run of fine producers each establishing unique spirit characters in tourist-friendly sites surrounded by all the grain you can shake a blade of barley at: Ardgowan, Eden Mill, Annandale, Kingsbarns, Lochlea, InchDairnie, the Glasgow Distillery Company, and Lindores Abbey.
We make it 17 whisky distilleries in the Lowlands now, although, with so many openings and more in the pipeline, it’s hard to keep up. The Lowlands may have once been the back page of a whisky menu, but it’s all change there now. The Glasgow Distillery can double or triple distill and has a hugely experimental cask selection. Eden Mill, Lochlea, Daftmill, and Lindores Abbey are all creating characterful single malt that is defined by production choices each makes, not trying to cater to a typical Lowland style. Distilleries like Annandale, Kingsbarns, and Ailsa Bay have experimented with peat to bring smokiness to the party, while InchDairnie is becoming a leader of Scottish rye whisky.
If you thought you knew the Lowlands, it might be worth reconsidering that point…
More whisky guides
Find out how whisky is made, about the different types of whisky available, and more...
