Inverleven

An unusual – now sadly demolished – distillery, Inverleven was built very close to the Lowland and Highland boundary line on the banks of the River Leven in the town of Dumbarton.

Inverleven is atypical. It was originally built as a sister distillery to the Dumbarton grain distillery. The largest grain distillery of its time, Dumbarton was built in 1938 to supply spirit for the Hiram Walker & Sons popular Ballantine’s blend. The smaller Inverleven malt distillery, built inside the larger grain complex, had a pair of traditional pot stills. This set-up was augmented in 1956 to include an unconventional Lomond still.

Sadly, the distillery was closed in 1991; the entire complex was decommissioned in 2002 and eventually demolished. The Lomond still found a new home on Islay, the Bruichladdich team now use it to distil The Botanist gin.

The unique distillation process at Inverleven produced an aromatic and fruity Lowland dram. Fortunately, stocks of this are increasingly hard to find whisky are still bottled by us as part of our ‘Rare Old’ range.