THE RECORD / STUDY 06
A merchant's distillery on the Cromarty Firth.
The still in Study 06 wears a water jacket around its neck, a sleeve of cold water that the company says sends vapour back into the pot. It stands in Alness, north of Inverness, on a shore that has held a distillery since 1839 and a US Navy mine base for two years of the First World War. This is the record behind it: the Jardine Matheson partner who built it, the Mackenzie brothers who put a stag on the label, the fire and the House of Lords case, the 1960 merger with a Glasgow blender, the four stills added in the 1960s, the eight replicas that began running in January 2026, and the bottles that keep setting retail records.
Alexander Matheson and 1839
The Dalmore was founded in 1839 by Alexander Matheson, a partner in the trading house Jardine Matheson, on the Dalmore mill estate by the Cromarty Firth, twenty miles north of Inverness. The trade reference is blunt about the money: a firm "controlling exports of the opium trade into China". The company calls him a "merchant adventurer" who wanted an exceptional single malt of his own.
By the company's account Matheson never ran the plant. For thirty years he let it to tenants. A visit history published by The Whisky Shop gives his dates as 1805 to 1886 and says he searched for months for a site with pure water and barley close by. A visitor site names the first tenants as a Sutherland family; that rests on one source and is not repeated as fact.
Dalmore (Whiskypedia) · History of The Dalmore · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · Our StoryThe Mackenzies and the stag
At Martinmas 1867 Andrew Mackenzie, 24, son of Matheson's land agent, took the lease with his brother Charles. The trade reference says they invested in "what had become a dilapidated distillery"; a visit history dates the first spirit to 27 January 1868 and two more stills to 1874. William joined in 1881, and in 1891 the three brothers bought the distillery from Sir Kenneth Matheson for £14,500.
The twelve-point stag on every bottle is the Mackenzie crest. The company tells it as legend: in 1263 Colin of Kintail, first chief of Clan Mackenzie, saved King Alexander III from a charging stag and was granted the emblem and the motto Luceo Non Uro, "I shine, not burn". It cites Benjamin West's painting of the scene. No medieval record is cited; it is family tradition the brand has adopted.
MacKenzie Brothers (Whiskypedia) · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · History of The Dalmore · Our Story · The Dalmore: The Comprehensive Collector's GuideNaval Base 17 and the fire
In 1917 the distillery was requisitioned as US Naval Base 17, headquarters of the US Navy's mine assembly for the barrage between Orkney and Norway. The Highland Council's heritage record says parts arrived by rail from Kyle of Lochalsh, assembly began on 29 May 1918 and 56,760 American mines were laid by the Armistice. A local history group puts over a thousand men on site.
The company and most histories say a mine exploded in 1920 and fire destroyed much of the distillery. The House of Lords judgment in Mackenzie Brothers v The Admiralty, 15 May 1925, records it differently: the premises were "accidentally burnt" on 5 February 1919, the Admiralty had accepted the fire risk in 1917, possession returned in June 1920, and the Mackenzies won lost profits for the rebuilding. Production resumed in 1922.
Submarine Mine Depot, US Naval Base 17, Dalmore Distillery (MHG59849) · Wartime Dalmore · Fascinating wartime memories of Dalmore Distillery revealed at Invergordon Museum exhibition · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · History of The Dalmore · Mackenzie Brothers v The Admiralty · Dalmore (Whiskypedia)Whyte & Mackay and the second stillhouse
Andrew Mackenzie's will led to Mackenzie Brothers (Dalmore) Ltd in 1927. Hector "Hac" Mackenzie took over in 1946 and in 1960 merged the company with Whyte & Mackay, the Glasgow blender that was its largest customer. The company calls it an acquisition; the trade reference calls it a merger in which the firm "finally lost its independence". It gave Whyte & Mackay its first distillery.
The stills then doubled from four to eight. The trade reference dates the second stillhouse to 1966; a visit history says five years after the merger; the company says "the mid-1960s" and credits Forsyths of Rothes, whose founder had serviced the plant before the war and whose son had been Hac's distillery manager. The new stills are twice the size of the old, and the spirit depends on running both houses "in tandem".
MacKenzie Brothers (Whiskypedia) · History of The Dalmore · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · Dalmore (Whiskypedia) · A Stillhouse Built with PurposeFrom American Brands to Emperador
Whyte & Mackay changed hands repeatedly after the family era. The trade reference timeline runs: American Brands in 1990, JBB (Greater Europe) in 1996, briefly Kyndal Spirits in 2001, and India's United Spirits in 2007. When Diageo took control of United Spirits, the UK competition authority objected to the overlap in blended Scotch and the company was put up for sale.
On 9 May 2014 United Spirits agreed to sell Whyte & Mackay to Emperador Inc, the Philippine brandy company controlled by Andrew Tan's Alliance Global, for £430 million, with The Dalmore, Jura, Fettercairn and Tamnavulin in the deal. Emperador took a secondary listing in Singapore on 14 July 2022. A 2023 Bloomberg report said the fund GIC was weighing a sale of its Emperador stake; no sale of a stake in Whyte & Mackay or The Dalmore was found.
Dalmore (Whiskypedia) · Whyte & Mackay sells for $724.5 million · Philippine brandy maker Emperador lists on Singapore ExchangeThe 62, Trinitas and the Decades
The luxury position rests on retail records under Richard Paterson, who joined Whyte & Mackay in 1970 and, the company says, became master distiller in 1975 aged 26. In 2002 twelve bottles of a 62 year old, from casks filled in 1868, 1878, 1926 and 1939, went on sale one at a time; a columnist puts the first at £28,877.50. The last sold at Changi Airport in September 2011 for S$250,000, reported as a retail record.
Trinitas, three bottles of a 64 year old, followed in October 2010; two sold for £100,000 each, the first six-figure whisky by the trade press account. In 2013 the twelve-bottle Paterson Collection went on sale at Harrods for £987,500. On 8 October 2021 Sotheby's Hong Kong sold the six-bottle Decades No. 6 Collection, 1951 to 2000, for US$1.1 million by the auction house's account.
History of The Dalmore · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · Dalmore: Behind the Label · DFS and The Dalmore set new whisky sales record at Changi Airport · The Dalmore Trinitas Scotch whisky sells for £100,000 · The Dalmore Decades Sotheby's auction announced · The Dalmore: The Comprehensive Collector's GuideEight replicas and a glass wall
The company calls it the first expansion in over half a century. Work began in spring 2023 under engineers Blyth & Blyth, who it says also oversaw the 1960s job, with Morrison Construction building and Threesixty Architecture designing a stillhouse on the old Saladin maltings. Forsyths hand-hammered eight replicas of the existing stills at Rothes and delivered them in spring 2024, the lyne arms measured to the millimetre.
Distilling in the new house began in January 2026 and visitors returned on 27 April 2026 after almost four years. Whisky Advocate reports two pairs of 8,000 litre and two pairs of 16,000 litre stills and a capacity of 9 million litres of alcohol a year, up from about 4.2 to 4.5 million. Sixteen stills now run across both houses, facing the firth through a fused-glass window by John Kenneth Clark.
A Stillhouse Built with Purpose · Reimagining the Home of The Dalmore · A Distillery Reimagined · Dalmore Distillery's New Visitor Experience · The Dalmore Distillery Tour Reimagined: The Last Distillery Tour · The Dalmore Distillery Expansion · The Dalmore Distillery · Dalmore (Whiskypedia)What Highland means in law
The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009 define Single Malt Scotch Whisky as Scotch whisky distilled in one or more batches at a single distillery, from water and malted barley without any other cereal, in pot stills. Scotch whisky must be distilled in Scotland at less than 94.8 per cent alcohol, matured in Scotland in oak casks of no more than 700 litres and aged for at least three years.
Regulation 10 protects five names: the regions Highland, Lowland and Speyside and the localities Campbeltown and Islay. Highland is the part of Scotland north of a line the regulation traces from the North Channel along the Firth of Clyde to Greenock and east to the Tay. A whisky may carry the name only if distilled in the region, so The Dalmore is Highland by definition, not by marketing.
The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, regulation 3 (definitions) · The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, regulation 10 (localities and regions)Made at Alness
- The Dalmore 12
- The entry to the Principal Collection, the range the company says grew from a single flagship 12 year old to a core of eight. Listed alongside a 12 Sherry Cask Select. The Principal Collection
- The Dalmore 15, 17 and 18
- The middle of the Principal Collection as listed on the company site in September 2026, the 18 priced at £315. The Principal Collection
- The Dalmore 21
- Described by the company as the pinnacle of the Principal Collection at £625. An auction-house guide says it is finished in 30 year old Matusalem oloroso casks after ex-bourbon maturation. The Principal Collection
- King Alexander III
- Named for the king of the stag legend. A no-age-statement multi-cask whisky in the Principal Collection, listed at £295. The Principal Collection
- Cigar Malt Reserve and Port Wood Reserve
- Two cask-led expressions in the Principal Collection. A visit history credits Richard Paterson with bringing in port pipes from W&J Graham's in the 1980s. Distillery Visit: The Dalmore
- The Dalmore 62 and Trinitas
- Twelve bottles of a 62 year old released 2002 to 2011, and three of a 64 year old in 2010. Between them they set retail records of £100,000, £120,000 and S$250,000 that the trade press reported at the time. DFS and The Dalmore set new whisky sales record at Changi Airport
Questions people ask
What is the water jacket on the Dalmore stills?
A copper sleeve around the neck of each spirit still through which cold water runs. The company says it is there "to encourage greater reflux for a more refined spirit": vapour condenses on the cooled wall and falls back into the pot. A former head of experience put it more flexibly, saying the "Victorian water jackets" let the stillmen "cool or warm the spirit as we wish". The wash stills do not have them.
A Stillhouse Built with Purpose · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · Dalmore Distillery's New Visitor ExperienceWhy are the Dalmore wash stills flat on top?
The company says the wash stills have "flat-topped heads with no swan necks" and the vapour leaves through side outlets into long lyne arms; a former head of experience said the arms sit seven inches below the top. The stated purpose is more copper contact and reflux. A widely repeated theory that they were cut down to fit under a low roof appears on independent sites as a theory, not as company history.
A Stillhouse Built with Purpose · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · Dalmore: the distillery and its whiskiesHow many stills does The Dalmore have?
Sixteen since January 2026: the original eight, four wash and four spirit, in the old stillhouse, plus eight replicas made by Forsyths in a new stillhouse. The plant grew from two stills in 1839 to four in 1874 and eight in the mid-1960s. The stills are deliberately mismatched in size, and the company says the wash and spirit stills are not run as fixed pairs.
The Dalmore Distillery Tour Reimagined: The Last Distillery Tour · Dalmore Distillery's New Visitor Experience · A Stillhouse Built with Purpose · Distillery Visit: The Dalmore · Dalmore (Whiskypedia) · Dalmore DistilleryWho owns The Dalmore?
Whyte & Mackay, which has owned it since a 1960 merger with the Mackenzie family company. Whyte & Mackay itself has belonged to Emperador Inc of the Philippines, part of Andrew Tan's Alliance Global, since a £430 million purchase from United Spirits agreed in May 2014.
MacKenzie Brothers (Whiskypedia) · Whyte & Mackay sells for $724.5 million · Dalmore (Whiskypedia)What happened at Dalmore in the First World War?
It became US Naval Base 17, where the US Navy assembled mines for the North Sea barrage from 1918. The distillery was badly damaged by fire during the occupation. The company dates the fire to 1920 and blames a mine; the House of Lords judgment in the Mackenzies' compensation case dates it to 5 February 1919 and says the premises came back in June 1920. Whisky was made again from 1922.
Submarine Mine Depot, US Naval Base 17, Dalmore Distillery (MHG59849) · History of The Dalmore · Mackenzie Brothers v The Admiralty · Dalmore (Whiskypedia)What is the most expensive Dalmore ever sold?
The Decades No. 6 Collection, six bottles from 1951 to 2000, sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong in October 2021 for US$1.1 million by the auction house's account. For a single bottle, a 62 year old sold at Changi Airport in 2011 for S$250,000 and two more sold at Sotheby's in May 2020 for £266,600 each, according to a visit history.
The Dalmore: The Comprehensive Collector's Guide · The Dalmore Decades Sotheby's auction announced · DFS and The Dalmore set new whisky sales record at Changi Airport · Distillery Visit: The DalmoreSources are linked under each section. Company statements are attributed as such. Where sources disagree, the page says which figure it uses and why. Corrections: hello@stillbound.ai.