Stemster

Stemster distillery

Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky

There were four farms called Stemster (one written Stempster) dotted around Caithness in the early 19th century, all of which could be the location for Stemster distillery. One source pinpoints it at Stempster House, five miles west of Thurso near the Forss Water. Other potential sites are near Wick, near Halkirk and seven miles north-west of Latheron on the A9 to Thurso, where there is a Stemster Hill and Loch Stemster. Current maps show no Stemster Farm in the area, but some long-abandoned farms or crofts are marked.

Stemster, west of Wick, is most likely to have been home to this distillery. The other possibilities are far more isolated and it is logical that distiller James Henderson chose somewhere close by to establish his Pulteney distillery. Crucially, he both stopped distilling at Stemster and started up Pulteney in 1826. It would have been a significant task to achieve that move from a distant Stemster.