Lochhead Distillery — Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

Lochhead Distillery (also recorded historically as Lochend Distillery) was a Scotch whisky distillery located on Lochend Street in Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland. It was founded in 1824 for A. McMurchy & Co. and was closed in 1928, having been absorbed by the neighbouring Benmore Distillery in 1920. Its rise and fall closely mirrors the story of Campbeltown itself, once self-proclaimed the "whisky capital of the world" before its rapid 20th-century industrial collapse.

History

Lochhead Distillery was established in 1824, during the boom years of licensed distilling that followed the Excise Act of 1823, when Campbeltown grew into one of Scotland's most densely concentrated whisky-producing towns, at its peak home to around 30 working distilleries supplying the blending trade. Lochhead was built on Lochend Street, close to the town's harbour, for the firm of A. McMurchy & Co. Like many of Campbeltown's smaller distilleries, it operated for decades as a modest, independently owned malt house, and detailed production records from this era are sparse, as is typical for the town's numerous minor distilleries, most of which left little documentary trail beyond ownership and excise registers. In 1920, as Campbeltown's whisky trade entered its rapid post-First World War decline, Lochhead was purchased by the neighbouring Benmore Distillery Company. The two operations were run in tandem for a few more years before Lochhead finally ceased production in 1928.

Quick Facts

• Region: Campbeltown
• Founded: 1824
• Owner: Benmore Distillery Company (from 1920, until closure)
• Status: Closed

Closure & Legacy

Lochhead closed in 1928 amid the wider collapse of Campbeltown's whisky industry, a period in which most of the town's distilleries shut within a few years of one another as the loss of the US export market during Prohibition, combined with a reputation for poor-quality bulk whisky from some producers, devastated demand. As with most of its Campbeltown contemporaries, the distillery buildings were subsequently demolished or repurposed, and no trace of production survives on the site today. Because Lochhead stopped distilling nearly a century ago and left behind only limited stock, genuine independent bottlings under the Lochhead or Lochend name are exceptionally rare and are of interest to collectors of historic Campbeltown malts; given the scarcity of verified examples on the market, provenance should always be checked carefully before purchase.