North of Scotland Distilling Company

North of Scotland Distilling Company History

North of Scotland Distilling Company was founded in 1957/8 by George P. Christie along with three other partners – John McLeod, John Scott and Louis Young – to purchase Robert Knox’s Forth Brewery in Cambus and convert it into a malt and grain distillery.

The North of Scotland distillery opened in 1958 with three patent stills producing grain whisky, as well as two pot stills producing a malt whisky named Strathmore.

By 1959 the demand for grain whisky was outstripping that for malt, and so Strathmore’s pot stills were removed to make way for a larger mash tun to increase North of Scotland’s grain output.

Over-production in the industry by the 1980s made business difficult for the group. The distillery was closed in 1980 and sold to DCL in 1982, with North of Scotland Distilling Company disbanded that same year.

Christie went on to open the Speyside distillery near Kingussie in 1990, but sold it 10 years later to a private investment group that included his son, Ricky. It was Ricky who reincorporated North of Scotland Distilling Company in 1995 with his wife, Priscilla Craig. It had remained a dormant company until Ricky eventually left Speyside distillery in 2005 and began to operate the renewed company as a whisky broker and bottler.