Lochruan Distillery — Campbeltown Single Malt Whisky

Lochruan Distillery is a former Scotch whisky distillery that stood on Prince's Street in Campbeltown, Argyll, Scotland. It was founded in 1835 and was closed in 1925 when it was absorbed into the Distillers Company during the collapse of the Campbeltown whisky trade. Records place its region as Campbeltown rather than the Lowlands, and like most of the town's lost distilleries, no verified original bottlings are known to survive today.

History

Lochruan Distillery was established in 1835 by Robert Johnston and Charles Rowatt Johnston, trading as Johnstons and Co., during the era when Campbeltown was expanding into one of Scotland's most important whisky-producing towns. In 1867 the distillery was acquired and rebuilt by brothers John and William McKersie, who ran it as the Lochruan Distillery Co.; the same family also owned Campbeltown's Albyn Distillery. By 1886, the whisky chronicler Alfred Barnard recorded the distillery's annual output at around 85,000 gallons. In 1919 the business passed to W. P. Lowrie and Co, a Glasgow blending and agency firm that had previously represented the distillery in trade.

Quick Facts

• Region: Campbeltown
• Founded: 1835
• Owner: Distillers Company (DCL), from 1925
• Status: Closed

Closure & Legacy

In 1925 Lochruan was taken over by the Distillers Company (DCL) as part of the industry-wide consolidation that devastated Campbeltown's whisky industry, and the distillery closed that year, with its buildings subsequently demolished. Its fate mirrored that of most of the town's roughly thirty distilleries, which fell to a handful of survivors within a decade amid falling demand, inconsistent spirit quality, and the loss of the American export market during Prohibition. No confirmed original Lochruan bottlings are known to circulate among collectors today, and little trace of the distillery site remains in modern Campbeltown.