Plans for £5.3m Moray visitor attraction to celebrate illicit whisky history
The Cabrach Trust looks to the area's "long and colourful" distilling heritage
A planning application for a historical distillery and heritage centre that would regenerate the remote Cabrach region has been lodged with Moray Council.
The Cabrach Trust hopes to transform the existing Inverharroch Farm into a visitor attraction with the aim of putting the Cabrach on the tourist map and stamping its place in the story of Scotch whisky.
Said to be one of the birthplaces of Scotch whisky, the Cabrach – which lies in a scenic area on the southern edge of Moray - is famed for illicit stills and smuggling routes in years gone by.
Researchers employed by the Trust have already discovered the site of an illicit whisky bothy thought to date back to the early 19th-century, sheltered by a small crag and built into the side of the hill, offering smugglers a vantage point to keep an eye out for excise men on the nearby highway.
The planned £5.3million centre makes use of the existing traditional farm steadings and has been designed by a team led by local architects and interior designers.
The proposals for the interactive heritage centre include a café, exhibition space for public and private hire and a gift shop, built around a courtyard and overlooking rolling hills and fields.
“The Cabrach has a long and colourful whisky distilling history..."
The visitor centre is set to be a major contributor to tourism across the North-East, including Aberdeenshire and Moray. Chairman and founder member of the Cabrach Trust, Grant Gordon, said: “The Cabrach has a long and colourful whisky distilling history. The heritage centre will celebrate this rich birthright, telling the as-yet untold story of the early days of farm distilling and the smuggling which was rife in the area, while the historical distillery will reflect production methods that were used in the Cabrach at the dawn of the modern distilling era in the early 1800’s.”
Funding for the refurbishment work will come from a mix of social finance, grants and charitable trusts and foundations.
The planning application is expected to be considered by councillors later this year. Subject to planning consent and funding, work would start on the distillery in 2018 followed by the heritage centre, with a projected completion date for both of spring 2020.