Just like its Alloa neighbour Cambus, the distillery at Carsebridge was founded around the turn of the 19th century - Carsebridge was probably between 1799-1804 - and both distilleries initially made Lowland single malt whisky before being converted to grain distillation.

Carsebridge was owned and operated by John Bald from its inception until his death in 1844, when it passed to his son Robert, who soon sold it to his brother John Bald Jr. The latter converted Carsebridge to grain distillation in the 1850s and by the time of Alfred Barnard’s visit in 1886, the distillery was established as one of the largest producers of grain whisky in the country with seven mash tuns, 25 washbacks with a capacity of over two million litres between them, and two Coffey stills knocking out well over 6 million litres of grain spirit per year.

A few years earlier in 1877 John Bald II had earned himself the nickname ‘the Politic Bald’ when he played his part in the inauguration of the Distillers Company Limited which saw Scotland’s top grain producers pool their resources to create one large industry-dominating grain whisky behemoth.

Carsebridge was badly damaged by fire in 1902, rebuilt and refitted after the First World War and modernised in 1956. In 1966 ownership of the distillery was transferred to DCL’s subsidiary Scottish Grain Distillers and the floor maltings at the distillery were removed to make way for a third stillhouse, which came online in the 1970s along with a new cooperage and a dark grains plant.

Sadly the Carsebridge distillery was mothballed at the height of the oversupply crisis in 1983 and most of the buildings were demolished a decade later. The cooperage remained active until 2011 when DCL descendant Diageo transferred coopering operations to Cambus.

The ten-acre Carsebridge site is a business park today, with the Grade II listed distillery manager’s house all that remains of what was once one of Scotland’s largest distilleries.