Glencoull Distillery — Highland Single Malt Whisky

Glencoull Distillery is a Scotch whisky distillery that once stood near Justinhaugh, by the River South Esk in Angus, Scotland, within the Highland whisky region. It was founded in 1897 and was closed in 1929, and today the site has been redeveloped with almost nothing of the original buildings remaining. Glencoull's malt was used almost entirely for blending, principally as a component of the Black Bull blended whisky produced by the Dundee spirit merchants Willsher & Son.

History

Glencoull was established in 1897, when the Glencoull Distillery Company converted an existing grain mill on the South Esk, about five miles north of Forfar, into a malt whisky distillery. The venture, founded by George Willsher and George Duncan, came at the tail end of the great Victorian whisky boom, and when that boom collapsed in 1899 the original company ran into financial trouble. Control subsequently passed to the Dundee wine and spirit firm George Willsher & Son, which kept the distillery running; the firm itself went through further difficulties around 1912–13, and ownership is understood to have changed hands more than once in the years that followed. Throughout its working life Glencoull's output was closely tied to Willsher's Black Bull blend, for which its malt was a key ingredient, and that blend continued to be sold under the Black Bull name for decades after distilling at Glencoull itself had stopped.

Quick Facts

• Region: Highland (Angus)
• Founded: 1897
• Owner: Glencoull Distillery Co., later George Willsher & Son (historic; site no longer operating)
• Status: Closed

Closure & Legacy

Distilling ceased in 1929 after roughly three decades of production. The buildings were not demolished straight away: through the 1930s the site was converted to milling use, and it was still operating as a mill, latterly run by the Angus Milling Company, as late as the 1970s. The former distillery buildings were eventually torn down in 1992, and little survives on the site today beyond the former excise officer's/manager's house. Because Glencoull's spirit was used almost exclusively for blending into Black Bull rather than being bottled as a single malt, no significant independent Glencoull bottlings are known to exist, and genuine examples would be exceptionally rare and largely undocumented on the collectors' market. The distillery is remembered today chiefly in whisky-history references as one of Scotland's many "lost" Highland distilleries.