Kingsbarns distillery
Perhaps the least likely distillery to exist Kingsbarns was the brain child of Douglas Clement, a former pro golf caddy with no background in the industry. Happily he had sufficient connection to wealthy investors and a little luck. Clement notes that he was "fed up sending my golfing clients out of Fife to visit a distillery and I thought, surely there’s an opportunity to create a distillery close to the golf courses?”/q>. With a £1.6 million target, despite securing £100,000 funding and a government grant of £670,000 it looked unlikely that Clement’s dream of a Kingsbarns distillery would go ahead.
Happily the attempt attracted the attention of the Wemyss family (owners of Wemyss Malts) who co-incidentally had owned part of the Cambo Estate between 1759 and 1783. In January 2013, in a buyout that saw Clement remaining as a director the the business was sold to the Wemyss family. Work began on Kingsbarns distillery within six months and the distillery was up and running within 18 months.
Kingsbarns factsheet
| Name | Pronounced | AKA | Region | Country of Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingsbarns | Lowlands | Scotland | ||
| Status | Active | Whisky Type | Website | Tours Available |
| Active | 2014 - Present | Malt | Kingsbarns | Tour Link |
| Manager | Distiller | Blender | Owned by | Parent Group |
| Douglas Clement | Douglas Clement |
Kingsbarns Timeline:
2009: Douglas Clement raises £100,000 funding to begin the development project
2012: The Scottish Government Food Processing Marketing and Co-operation Grant of £670,000 is awarded to the project
2013: Falling short of the £1.6 million needed Clement sells the company to the Wemyss family
2014: Visitor Centre was opened on St Andrews Day
2015: Distilling started in January
2018: The first whisky (3 years of age) will be ready in 2018
Useful Kingsbarns links:
Interesting Kingsbarns links:
Can I tour Kingsbarns?
Yes Kingsbarns distillery is tourable. On Trip Advisor the distillery has been rated as excellent by 383 of 518 tours to date. This gives Kingsbarns an overall rating of 4.5
Latest reviews
Misters Birthday
by Alan S
Learning a bit of history about the kingdom of Fife that I did not know. The taste experience from the tour guide was also very informative about the different taste methods
Great Value
by Chris E
Friendly staff and very knowledgable. We did both the whisky and gin tour. The distillery is in lovely surroundings. Great value for money and worth a visit if your into gin or whisky, you get chance to sample the variety of gin and whisky before you buy.
Excellent Tour
by Dmvparker
Alan was an excellent tour guide, he was very friendly and easy to talk to. His tour was highly informative and we learned a lot from him. Thanks Alan!
| Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|
| Excellent | 383 |
| Very good | 102 |
| Average | 24 |
| Poor | 10 |
| Terrible | 7 |
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