| Country | scotland |
| Region | Speyside |
| Established | 1824 |
| Owner | Diageo |
| Type | Single Malt Scotch Whisky |
| Number of stills | |
| Visitor center | No |
| Status | Closed |
| Phone | n/a |
Banff Distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery that once stood near Inverboyndie, on Banff Bay, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, within the Speyside whisky region. It was founded in 1824 and was closed for good in 1983, with the site later demolished. Banff is remembered today as one of Speyside's "lost" or "silent" distilleries, known as much for a dramatic wartime bombing as for the whisky it produced.
Banff distillery was established in 1824 by James McKilligan & Co. on Banff Bay at Inverboyndie, on Scotland's north-east coast. Ownership passed to Alex Mackay before the Simpson family took control in the early 1850s. In 1863, James Simpson Jr. built an entirely new distillery on the same stretch of coast, chosen for its access to the local railway and to spring water drawn from Fiskaidly farm. The Simpson family ran the distillery for decades until Mile End Distillery Company acquired an interest in 1921. Production in the early years used triple distillation, a practice retained until 1924. The distillery's most notorious moment came on 16 August 1941, when a German Junkers Ju 88 bomber attacked the site during the Second World War, destroying a bonded warehouse and a substantial quantity of maturing whisky. In 1932 the business passed into the hands of the Distillers Company Limited (DCL), which operated it — with incremental modernisation, including a switch from hand-fired coal stills to mechanical coal firing in 1963 and a conversion to oil heating in 1970 — until the wider industry downturn of the early 1980s.
Banff was mothballed in 1983 as part of the sweeping rationalisation that closed many Scottish malt distilleries during that decade's whisky slump, and it never reopened. DCL's successor, United Distillers, later passed ownership to Diageo. The buildings fell into disrepair after closure, and a fire destroyed the last surviving warehouse on 11 April 1991, effectively completing the demolition of the site; little of the original distillery remains standing today. As with other silent Speyside distilleries, genuine Banff single malt is no longer produced, so surviving stock exists only as older official releases and independent bottlings drawn from casks laid down before 1983. These bottlings are scarce and are prized by collectors and connoisseurs of lost distilleries as a taste of a whisky-making history that has otherwise vanished from the Banffshire coast.
Banff distillery is located at Inverboyndie, Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Banff distillery was founded in 1824.
Banff distillery is owned by Diageo.
Banff distillery is from Speyside, scotland.
You can buy Banff whisky at Glenbotal.co.uk. We currently stock a selection with free UK delivery on orders over £99.
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About Glenbotal
The idea of Glenbotal came to us naturaly: as whisky lovers, we were always on the lookout for new experiences in the whisky world. That’s why we created Glenbotal and became our very own first customers. We buy unique and hard to find spirits from auctions, ballots, and private collections. Then, we share them with a small circle of friends and people who can appreciate a good dram.