Speyside Distillery was one of Scotland’s younger and more unusually situated single malt distilleries. Located at Tromie Mills near Kingussie, on the southern edge of the Speyside whisky region, the distillery began production in December 1990 and operated until 2025, when its owners announced that production would relocate to a new site under a different distillery name.
Founded: 1990
Closed: 2025
Stills: 1 Wash, 1 Spirit
Water Source: River Tromie
Capacity: Approx. 600,000 litres
Owner: Harvey’s of Edinburgh / Speyside Distillers Company Ltd
The origins of Speyside Distillery stretch back several decades before the first spirit was produced. The site was originally home to an old barley mill and croft, with George Christie acquiring the property in the 1950s. In 1962 Christie commissioned stonemason Alex Fairlie to begin constructing a distillery on the site, but the project progressed remarkably slowly. The buildings were finally completed in 1987 and distillation commenced on 12 December 1990.
Speyside remained a very small operation by modern standards, with production centred around a single wash still and spirit still. Water was drawn from the River Tromie, a tributary of the Spey, using the old mill lade that had once powered the original waterwheel. The compact nature of the site meant that the complete production process was housed within a single building.
The first single malt from the distillery appeared in 1993 under the Drumguish name, followed by The Speyside 8 Year Old in 1999 and a 10 Year Old in 2001. Over the years, whisky from the distillery appeared under several different names, including Drumguish, Speyside, Cú Dhub and Glentromie, while casks were also supplied to independent bottlers.
An interesting footnote in the distillery's history came in 2001, when Speyside appeared as the fictional Lagganmore Distillery in the BBC television series Monarch of the Glen.
A major change came in 2012 when Speyside Distillery and its whisky stocks were acquired by Harvey’s of Edinburgh, headed by John Harvey McDonough. Harvey’s subsequently concentrated on developing SPEY as the distillery's principal single malt brand, launching a new range in 2014. Beinn Dubh single malt was added the following year, while Byron’s Gin was also produced at the distillery.
Speyside’s house style is generally light, soft and approachable, with cereal and malty notes alongside vanilla, orchard fruits, herbs, gentle wood and spice. While many of the distillery's earlier official releases were relatively young, more than three decades of production eventually provided significantly older stocks, and mature Speyside has increasingly appeared through independent bottlers as well as official releases.
The most significant chapter in Speyside Distillery's history came to an end in 2025. Speyside Distillers announced that it would leave Tromie Mills and relocate production to a newly acquired Highland estate, where operations would continue under a different distillery name. Consequently, whisky distilled at the original Speyside Distillery up to 2025 is now regarded by its owners as spirit from a ‘lost distillery’.
This gives the surviving stocks from Tromie Mills a rather different significance than they had only a few years ago. With production at the original site spanning just 35 years from 1990 to 2025, older official releases and independently bottled single casks now document the relatively short history of one of Scotland's more unusual modern distilleries.