This has been a bit of a work in progress since November, but due to life commitments and a death in the family it had to wait to get finished. A couple more visits happened and I managed to get the rest of the place covered. I had only been there in the middle of the night previously so I had no idea just how incredible this place was hidden away behind closed doors. Sadly in that time frame some of the Scottish umbex lot managed to get in to a small part of it as I was finishing the place off and pics have been appearing on Facebook as a result. This place is pretty special, but it is too good not to share with you all, and given that work is just about to commence on a huge project to reopen the Rosebank Distillery on the site the last thing I want to see is anything bad happen to the place because of the usual tourbus. Workers have been spotted around the place recently so hopefully it is in safe hands.
I work as a brewer, so seeing a piece of history like this in situ and knowing how pretty much everything worked meant I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I know absolutely bugger all about distillation but the starting process of wort production is fundamentally the same as beer. Other than the stills and pumps getting yoinked at Christmas time in 2009 the rest of the place was pretty untouched. Pretty fucking heroic task to make 3 huge stills vanish into thin air.
History:
Records exists, showing that a distillery existed in Falkirk as early as 1798, it was run by the Stark brothers in Laurieston. In 1817, James Robertson opened a distillery nearby named Rosebank - records are unclear as to whether this was in the same location as the later distillery. It remained open only until 1819. In 1827 John Stark (of the brothers) opened Camelon distillery on the west bank of the canal, he ran this until his death in 1836. After this time the Camelon distillery was run by Thomas Gunn and his father. In 1840 the Gunn's were approached by James Rankine to either buy or lease the Camelon distillery Maltings (on the east bank of the canal) where he set up a new distillery under the Rosebank name. The new Rosebank quickly grew, requiring expansion in 1845 and rebuilding in 1864. Indeed in 1861 when Camelon Distillery went bankrupt, Rankine was able to purchase it as well and demolish it, leaving only the maltings for the use of Rosebank. Rosebank Distillery Ltd was formed in 1894, and in 1914 it was among the companies that amalgamated to form the Scottish Malt Distillers. Later the group became part of DCL.
In 1886, the distillery was visited by Alfred Barnard, who noted that it was set across two sites one on each side of the canal with a swing bridge linking the pair. The malt was produced in the former Camelon maltings on the west side of the canal, then would be transferred over to the distillery on the east side by means of the swing bridge. He also noted that their warehouse at the time had storage for 500,000 gallons (1,892,705.9 litres)
Rosebank was once considered one of the premier lowland whiskies but then United Distillers mothballed the distillery in 1993. The reason given for the mothballing was that its effluent treatment would have required a £2m upgrade in order to comply with European standards of the time, this did not make it commercially viable. At the time of its closure, it still retained many historical features in the production of the whisky.
By 1988, the bonded warehouse for the distillery (on the west bank of the canal) had been sold off and redeveloped, partially becoming a Beefeater Pub and Grill.
In 2002, the distillery buildings and contents were sold to British Waterways by Diageo, and the maltings were demolished to make way for a housing development. In 2008 plans were started to open a new distillery in Falkirk original Rosebank equipment. However over Christmas and New Year 2008/2009, the original Rosebank Stills (along with other equipment) were stolen by metal thieves and were not recovered. Plans for the new distillery continued to develop gaining Scottish Government approval, the new building being near the Laurieston site of the original Rosebank distillery. Despite suggestion that the new whisky may be produced under the Rosebank name, Diageo - who owned the Rosebank trademark at the time and continued to release limited bottles of original Rosebank whisky - denied this.
In October 2017, Ian Macleod Distillers announced that they had acquired the Rosebank Whisky trademark from Diageo and the site from Scottish Canals in order to re-establish Rosebank Whisky by building a new distillery and re-commencing production in the old style.
Rosebank distillery hopes to reopen in autumn 2020 as plans to resurrect the Lowland single malt have now been given the green light by the council.
The first part I got into was the chemical store and draff tank, draff being the distillers term for spent grain. This is generally given away to local farmers who are welcome to take as much as they can move, because it costs a small fortune to pay for its disposal.
Steam vent at the top where the corkscrew conveyor that carries the moist grain enters the tank, this would often get blocked up.
The final piece of the puzzle, before I get to the good stuff, was the barrel warehouse. It was completely void of any oak barrels as you would expect, but a lot of original features remained. The original tracks the barrels were rolled along, the huge sponge crash pads, the oak beams that were placed over rows of barrels to support another row on top, the wooden chocks used to stop them rolling around were all neatly bagged up, and the hoist used to move them from the ground level to the two floors above. I bet that was a pretty nerve wracking sight, watching several hundred litres of spirit that you wont make any form of return on for around 10+ years being winched upwards!
Despite being completely empty, the light in here was incredible.
Continued...
I work as a brewer, so seeing a piece of history like this in situ and knowing how pretty much everything worked meant I was like a kid in a sweet shop. I know absolutely bugger all about distillation but the starting process of wort production is fundamentally the same as beer. Other than the stills and pumps getting yoinked at Christmas time in 2009 the rest of the place was pretty untouched. Pretty fucking heroic task to make 3 huge stills vanish into thin air.
History:
Records exists, showing that a distillery existed in Falkirk as early as 1798, it was run by the Stark brothers in Laurieston. In 1817, James Robertson opened a distillery nearby named Rosebank - records are unclear as to whether this was in the same location as the later distillery. It remained open only until 1819. In 1827 John Stark (of the brothers) opened Camelon distillery on the west bank of the canal, he ran this until his death in 1836. After this time the Camelon distillery was run by Thomas Gunn and his father. In 1840 the Gunn's were approached by James Rankine to either buy or lease the Camelon distillery Maltings (on the east bank of the canal) where he set up a new distillery under the Rosebank name. The new Rosebank quickly grew, requiring expansion in 1845 and rebuilding in 1864. Indeed in 1861 when Camelon Distillery went bankrupt, Rankine was able to purchase it as well and demolish it, leaving only the maltings for the use of Rosebank. Rosebank Distillery Ltd was formed in 1894, and in 1914 it was among the companies that amalgamated to form the Scottish Malt Distillers. Later the group became part of DCL.
In 1886, the distillery was visited by Alfred Barnard, who noted that it was set across two sites one on each side of the canal with a swing bridge linking the pair. The malt was produced in the former Camelon maltings on the west side of the canal, then would be transferred over to the distillery on the east side by means of the swing bridge. He also noted that their warehouse at the time had storage for 500,000 gallons (1,892,705.9 litres)
Rosebank was once considered one of the premier lowland whiskies but then United Distillers mothballed the distillery in 1993. The reason given for the mothballing was that its effluent treatment would have required a £2m upgrade in order to comply with European standards of the time, this did not make it commercially viable. At the time of its closure, it still retained many historical features in the production of the whisky.
By 1988, the bonded warehouse for the distillery (on the west bank of the canal) had been sold off and redeveloped, partially becoming a Beefeater Pub and Grill.
In 2002, the distillery buildings and contents were sold to British Waterways by Diageo, and the maltings were demolished to make way for a housing development. In 2008 plans were started to open a new distillery in Falkirk original Rosebank equipment. However over Christmas and New Year 2008/2009, the original Rosebank Stills (along with other equipment) were stolen by metal thieves and were not recovered. Plans for the new distillery continued to develop gaining Scottish Government approval, the new building being near the Laurieston site of the original Rosebank distillery. Despite suggestion that the new whisky may be produced under the Rosebank name, Diageo - who owned the Rosebank trademark at the time and continued to release limited bottles of original Rosebank whisky - denied this.
In October 2017, Ian Macleod Distillers announced that they had acquired the Rosebank Whisky trademark from Diageo and the site from Scottish Canals in order to re-establish Rosebank Whisky by building a new distillery and re-commencing production in the old style.
Rosebank distillery hopes to reopen in autumn 2020 as plans to resurrect the Lowland single malt have now been given the green light by the council.
The first part I got into was the chemical store and draff tank, draff being the distillers term for spent grain. This is generally given away to local farmers who are welcome to take as much as they can move, because it costs a small fortune to pay for its disposal.
Steam vent at the top where the corkscrew conveyor that carries the moist grain enters the tank, this would often get blocked up.
The final piece of the puzzle, before I get to the good stuff, was the barrel warehouse. It was completely void of any oak barrels as you would expect, but a lot of original features remained. The original tracks the barrels were rolled along, the huge sponge crash pads, the oak beams that were placed over rows of barrels to support another row on top, the wooden chocks used to stop them rolling around were all neatly bagged up, and the hoist used to move them from the ground level to the two floors above. I bet that was a pretty nerve wracking sight, watching several hundred litres of spirit that you wont make any form of return on for around 10+ years being winched upwards!
Despite being completely empty, the light in here was incredible.
Continued...
