The Grange Distillery, Burntisland

A framed print of The Grange distillery, Burntisland. The Grange Distillery was first established as a brewery in 1767, with proprietors Messrs Boog and Thomson agreeing a deal with the council to pay £55 per year in tax for permission to supply beer and ale locally. It wasn’t until 1786 that it became a distillery and The Grange moved into whisky making and continued distilling for 130 years. The Grange was also thought to be the first distillery in Scotland to use a Coffey still, which was installed in 1883. Invented by Aeneas Coffey, this modified continuous column still made it a cheaper and more productive way to distill alcohol. Whisky historian Alfred Barnard visited The Grange between 1884 and 1886 when he was travelling around Scotland. He noted the sheer scale of production for the time, stating that the distillery was producing 650,000 gallons of whisky - between 6000 and 7000 litres a week. And that it had 260,000 gallons that had to be made under pressure of orders. After a rebuild in 1806, the Grange was licensed to William Young and Co. It’s this name that can be seen on ‘Old Burntisland whisky’ labels - a whisky so rare it sold for around £90,000 at auction. In 1914 William Young, as a limited company, joined four other whisky companies (Clydesdale, Wishaw; St Magdalene, Linlithgow; Glenkinchie, Pencaitland and Rosebank, Falkirk) to form Scottish Malt Distillers Ltd (SMD), which eventually went on to become Diageo. The Grange’s main market was America and the distillery’s location in the town made it ideal for shipping its wares. Prohibition meant production ceased in 1927 but the warehouses were used until 1987 when they were decommissioned. Now all that remains of the distillery are the old manager’s house, the bonded warehouse, a cottage and another distillery house, which has been converted into flats.