THE RECORD / STUDY 04
A still that fits the room.
The still in Study 04 is the wash still at Pulteney Distillery in Wick, on the far north-east coast of Scotland. It has no swan neck. Its head ends in a flat plate above a boil ball nearly as wide as the pot, and the vapour leaves through a straight pipe in the wall. This is the record behind it: the planned fishing town it was built to serve, the founder who moved his still to the coast, the twenty-five dry years that shut the pubs and the distillery, the Canadian owners who rebuilt it, and the story the distillery used to tell about why the top is flat.
Pulteneytown and the herring, 1803 to 1810
Wick is two towns. North of the river is the old burgh. South of it is Pulteneytown, a planned settlement built by the British Fisheries Society for the herring trade. Thomas Telford drew the plans; the Wick Harbour Authority dates the harbour work from 1803 and the port opening to 1809, and the scotchwhisky.com reference puts the new town at 1810. It was named for Sir William Pulteney, the Society's governor and Telford's patron.
The trade grew fast. The harbour authority records 822 boats in 1818 and 976 boats landing 24,400 crans of herring on one day in 1864. The company says two thousand vessels worked the harbour at the peak. Undiscovered Scotland puts the summer population at 15,000 against a normal 6,000, with 47 inns selling 800 gallons of whisky a week.
Pulteneytown · Wick, Caithness · Port Timeline · Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Pulteney DistilleryJames Henderson moves to the coast, 1826
James Henderson had been distilling inland at Stemster, near Halkirk, about fifteen miles away. The scotchwhisky.com reference says he did so "out of sight of the law" and dates his move into Pulteneytown to 1825; its own timeline and the company give 1826. Undiscovered Scotland dates his first small distillery to about 1800 and gives transport as the reason for moving: a town with a harbour could ship whisky anywhere.
The company says the same. With no roads, "Barley arrived by boat, whisky left the same way." The water came, and still comes, from Loch Hempriggs through a lade the company says Telford built in 1807. Alfred Barnard, touring in the 1880s, found two malting floors, peat-fired kilns and three stills: one large wash still and two small spirit stills. The Hendersons held the distillery until 1920.
Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Pulteney Distillery · Our Craft: The Maritime MaltWick goes dry, 1922 to 1947, and the distillery closes
In 1920 the Hendersons sold to James Watson & Co of Dundee, which passed to John Dewar & Sons and then into the Distillers Company. Wick, meanwhile, voted itself dry under the Temperance (Scotland) Act. Gavin D Smith gives the dates: "between 28th May 1922 and 28th May 1947, there were no public houses or licensed grocers in Wick open for the sale of alcohol to the public." The scotchwhisky.com reference credits the vote to an American evangelist.
The distillery worked on inside a dry town for eight years, then closed in 1930. The sources disagree on why. The scotchwhisky.com distillery page says "a downturn in the market forced it to close"; the same site's brand page blames "the imposition of prohibition in Wick". Either way, the plant was silent for twenty-one years.
Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Beauty is in the glass of the beholder (Old Pulteney) · Our Craft: The Maritime MaltBertie Cumming, Hiram Walker and the 1958 to 1959 rebuild
Wick repealed its ban in 1947. In 1951 Robert "Bertie" Cumming, a solicitor who also owned Balblair, bought Pulteney and restarted production. The company puts it plainly: "Twenty-seven years at rest. Back on its feet within four." In 1955 Cumming sold both distilleries to the Canadian group Hiram Walker & Sons, which the scotchwhisky.com reference says bought through its James & George Stodart subsidiary.
Hiram Walker rebuilt the plant. The scotchwhisky.com brand page says it was "substantially rebuilt during 1958/59, at which point floor maltings were abandoned"; the company dates the refurbishment to 1958 and says the old maltings became the visitor centre; Undiscovered Scotland says 1959. Smith, writing in 2001, called it "a brutal makeover during the late 1950s". The confined stillhouse the visitor sees today dates from that work. Whether the present wash still does is not recorded.
Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Pulteney Distillery · Beauty is in the glass of the beholder (Old Pulteney)Allied, Inver House and Bangkok
Through a series of mergers Hiram Walker's Scotch interests ended up with Allied, later Allied Domecq. Under Allied the make went almost entirely to blends, with Gordon & MacPhail bottling a little as an eight-year-old. In 1995 Allied sold Pulteney to Inver House Distillers of Airdrie, founded in 1964 as a subsidiary of Publicker Industries of Philadelphia and bought by its managers in 1988. The distillery "was in dire need of repair". Inver House set out to build a single malt brand and released the 12 Year Old in 1997.
Inver House changed hands twice. In 2001 Pacific Spirits, part of the Great Oriole group, paid £56 million. In 2006 International Beverage Holdings, the international arm of Thai Beverage, acquired Pacific Spirits UK and with it Pulteney, Balblair, Knockdhu, Speyburn and Balmenach. That group owns the distillery today.
Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Inver House Distillers (Whiskypedia) · Best Spirits and Inver House join InterBev · Our Craft: The Maritime MaltThe still with no swan neck
The company now calls it "a boiling ball at its base and a flat top above, a design found in only two other distilleries in Scotland" and no longer says why the top is flat. Older copy did: "Legend has it that when the still was delivered it was too tall for the still house and the manager simply decided to cut the top off!"
Smith hedged too in 2001: "the story goes that when a new still was due to be installed it was found to be too tall." Guides in 2015, 2017 and 2024 gave three versions. None dates it, names the maker, or says whether today's vessel is the one cut. The result is not in doubt: a huge boil ball, a flat plate where the swan neck would be, a pipe through the wall.
Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky · Beauty is in the glass of the beholder (Old Pulteney) · Pulteney Distillery · Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · I visited Old Pulteney Distillery and learnt a lot!The Maritime Malt, and the 2012 award
Inver House markets Old Pulteney as "The Maritime Malt"; the scotchwhisky.com reference records "The Genuine Maritime Malt". The company's case is location: warehouses a short walk from the harbour, "Stone walls invite the salt-laden air of Wick into every cask." Undiscovered Scotland notes a 1970s debate, with Old Pulteney at its centre, over whether coastal whiskies really taste of salt. Travel retail bottlings carry the names of Wick herring drifters and Caithness lighthouses.
The best-known award came when Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2012 named Old Pulteney 21 Year Old its World Whisky of the Year. The company still cites it. In March 2016 the 1989 Vintage was named World's Best Single Malt at Whisky Magazine's World Whiskies Awards. Both are the verdicts of their publications and are attributed as such.
Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Pulteney Distillery · Old Pulteney crowned Best Single Malt · Old Pulteney wins World Whisky of the Year honorWhat Highland single malt 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 itself 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 the name Highland: the part of Scotland north of a line from the Firth of Clyde at Greenock to the North Sea. A whisky may only carry the name if distilled there. Wick is about as far north of that line as the mainland goes, so Old Pulteney is Highland by definition. The company's "most northerly distillery in mainland Scotland" claim is geography, not regulation.
The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, regulation 3 (definitions) · The Scotch Whisky Regulations 2009, regulation 10 (localities and regions) · Our Craft: The Maritime MaltMade at Wick
- Old Pulteney 12 Year Old
- Released in 1997, two years after Inver House bought the distillery. The company calls it "the spirit of Old Pulteney"; retailers list it at 40 per cent. Our Craft: The Maritime Malt
- Old Pulteney 15 and 18 Year Old
- The aged core expressions, both listed at 46 per cent by The Whisky Exchange in September 2026. Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky
- Old Pulteney 21 Year Old
- Introduced in 2005. Named World Whisky of the Year in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2012, a title the company still cites. Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia)
- Harbour and the Coastal Series
- No-age-statement and cask-finish releases listed by retailers in 2026, the Coastal Series Port Cask among them. Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky
- WK499 Isabella Fortuna and the lighthouses
- Travel retail bottlings from 2010 named after Wick herring drifters (WK499, WK209 Good Hope, WK217 Spectrum) and, from 2013, the lighthouses at Noss Head, Duncansby Head and Pentland Skerries. Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia)
- The 200th anniversary releases, 2026
- A Distillery Exclusive finished in Manzanilla and oloroso casks, a 30 Year Old limited to 1,000 bottles, and a 50 Year Old from four casks, 200 bottles at 40.8 per cent, the oldest official release to date. Old Pulteney at 200: The Whisky That Belongs to Wick
Questions people ask
Why does the Old Pulteney wash still have a flat top?
The distillery's current description is a design: "a boiling ball at its base and a flat top above, a design found in only two other distilleries in Scotland." The story told on tours and in older company copy is that a new still arrived too tall for the stillhouse and the manager had the top cut off. Every published version calls it a legend or a story, and none dates it or names the still. Both readings are on the record; neither is proven.
Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky · Beauty is in the glass of the beholder (Old Pulteney) · Pulteney DistilleryDoes Old Pulteney use worm tubs?
Yes. Both stills condense in worm tubs, which the company says it has "no intention of changing". Trade sources describe the pair as stainless steel rather than the usual wood, and visitors report them standing outside the stillhouse. A 2018 feature notes this survived the Allied years, when the group was "great at ripping out worm tubs".
Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Beauty is in the glass of the beholder (Old Pulteney) · Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Worm tubs: the inside storyHow many stills does Pulteney Distillery have?
Two: one wash still and one spirit still. The wash still has the flat top and the very large boil ball. The spirit still has a swan neck, a lyne arm that bends back on itself and a purifier, which one reference and one tour guide say is not in use. Alfred Barnard found three stills in the 1880s.
Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Pulteney DistilleryDid Wick really ban alcohol?
Yes. Under the Temperance (Scotland) Act the town voted for No Licence, and from 28 May 1922 to 28 May 1947 no pub or licensed grocer in Wick could sell alcohol. The distillery kept working until 1930, then closed until 1951. Sources differ on whether the market or the ban closed it.
Beauty is in the glass of the beholder (Old Pulteney) · Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia)Who owns Old Pulteney?
Inver House Distillers, which bought the distillery from Allied in 1995. Inver House has belonged since 2006 to International Beverage Holdings, the international arm of Thai Beverage, alongside Balblair, Knockdhu, Speyburn and Balmenach.
Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Best Spirits and Inver House join InterBev · Inver House Distillers (Whiskypedia)Why is Old Pulteney called the Maritime Malt?
It is the brand's positioning, chosen by Inver House. The distillery is a short walk from Wick harbour, the founder shipped barley in and whisky out by sea, and the company says the salt air reaches the casks in its warehouses. Whether coastal maturation produces a salty taste has been argued since the 1970s.
Old Pulteney (Whiskypedia) · Our Craft: The Maritime Malt · Pulteney DistillerySources 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.