Burnside Distillery — Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

Burnside Distillery is a former Scotch whisky distillery that once stood on Witchburn Road in Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland. It was founded in 1825 and closed in 1919, one of the many casualties of the collapse of the Campbeltown whisky industry in the early twentieth century. Alfred Barnard visited Burnside during his 1880s tour of the United Kingdom's distilleries, and the site was later redeveloped as a dairy creamery.

History

Burnside Distillery was built in 1825 by the partnership of McMurchy, Ralston & Co., during the boom years that made Campbeltown one of Scotland's most concentrated whisky-producing towns, with more than 30 distilleries eventually operating within its boundaries. Founding partner Robert McMurchy left the business in 1828, shortly after which the distillery changed hands. By 1840 ownership had passed to Colvill & Greenlees, the same partnership that also ran the town's Argyll Distillery, and Burnside remained under their management for much of its working life.

The distillery was substantial by Campbeltown standards: when it was offered for sale in 1888, its plant was described as capable of producing around 120,000 gallons of spirit a year. Burnside was one of the distilleries visited by the chronicler Alfred Barnard in the 1880s and recorded in his 1887 survey, "The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom," which remains one of the few detailed contemporary accounts of the distillery's operation.

Quick Facts

• Region: Campbeltown, Scotland
• Founded: 1825
• Owner: Closed; last known owner Colvill & Greenlees
• Status: Closed

Closure & Legacy

Like most of Campbeltown's distilleries, Burnside did not survive the industry's collapse in the early twentieth century, brought on by a combination of over-production, falling quality, the loss of the American market ahead of Prohibition, and the general contraction of the Scotch whisky trade after the First World War. Production at Burnside ceased around the outbreak of that war, and the distillery closed for good in 1919. The site was subsequently taken over by United Creameries Ltd and converted into a dairy creamery, later known as Campbeltown Creamery, erasing almost all physical trace of the original distillery buildings.

No original Burnside single malt bottlings are known to survive on the market today, and independent bottlings under the distillery's name have not been documented. Like many of Campbeltown's "lost" distilleries, Burnside is remembered chiefly through historical records such as Barnard's survey rather than through whisky that collectors can still obtain.