Glenside Distillery — Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

Glenside Distillery was a Scotch whisky distillery located in Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland. It was founded in 1830 and closed in 1926, one of the many casualties of Campbeltown's dramatic decline from "the whisky capital of the world" to a handful of surviving producers. Glenside is notable as the first Campbeltown distillery to advertise in a local newspaper, in 1921.

History

Glenside Distillery was built in Campbeltown in 1830. Sources differ slightly on the earliest ownership: some records credit John Marshall as founder, while others note the distillery was trading as David Anderson & Co. by 1837, with that partnership continuing until it was dissolved in 1844. The business then continued under a succession of partners as the Glenside Distillery Co., with the Orr family - who also had interests in the Jura distillery and a Glasgow whisky sales agency - playing a significant role. When visited by whisky writer Alfred Barnard in the 1880s, Glenside was producing around 70,000 gallons of spirit per year, a respectable output for a Campbeltown distillery of the period.

In 1905, Robert Louis Orr acquired the company's assets as sole surviving trustee, and the business was formally incorporated as The Glenside Distillery Company Limited in 1908. The distillery continued operating into the early twentieth century, and in 1921 became the first Campbeltown distillery to advertise in the local press.

Quick Facts

• Region: Campbeltown
• Founded: 1830
• Owner: The Glenside Distillery Company Ltd (closed; various owners historically, including David Anderson & Co. and the Orr family)
• Status: Closed

Closure & Legacy

Glenside closed in 1926 amid the wider collapse of the Campbeltown whisky industry, which saw the town's distillery count fall from around thirty at its Victorian peak to just a handful by the 1930s, driven by overproduction, falling quality reputation, the loss of the American export market during Prohibition, and the Depression. The distillery buildings were subsequently demolished. The company itself entered voluntary liquidation in 1930, and a new company using the Glenside name was incorporated in 1933 by whisky blenders Charles Hepburn and Joseph D. Ross, though it is unclear whether this represented any genuine continuation of production rather than simply a preserved trading name. No stock or original bottlings from Glenside are known to survive in the modern market, making it one of Campbeltown's many "lost" distilleries, remembered today chiefly through historical records such as Barnard's nineteenth-century distillery surveys and local trade directories.