📌 Wick, Highland
★★★
Old Pulteney Distillery is a lot like its home town of Wick: old-fashioned, quirky, and inexorably linked to the sea. This traditional distillery with a cramped, no-frills interior opened in 1826 and was for a long time the most northerly in mainland Scotland, though the revived Wolfburn Distillery in Thurso stole this title in 2013. The sea salt in the air is said to lend a briny finish to the whisky’s taste, infused during its maturation period at the on-site warehouses – Old Pulteney is therefore also known as The Maritime Malt. However, it is the unusually shaped stills which are largely responsible for the famously oily yet fragrant character – the wash still has a very squat appearance with a bulging neck which (to our knowledge) you won’t find anywhere else. Look out for the same shape in the styling of the whisky bottles.
🌍 Location
📌 Huddart Street, 15-min walk southeast of Wick town centre
🧭 O.S. Grid Reference: ND 367501
🛰️ GPS coordinates: 58.435117,-3.084463
🚌 Royal Place | 🚆Wick (1 mi)
🚗 Street parking
📝 Key info
⌚ Monday to Saturday, April to September; weekdays, October to March
🎫 £15+ adult depending on tour type / £7 child – booking advised
