Isle of Raasay Distillery
Co-founders Bill Dobbie and Alasdair Day first met in 2013 and formed R&B Distillers with the common goal of building Scotland’s leading artisanal distiller. Focusing on local production, provenance, quality and doing things differently.
By 2015, they had identified the Isle of Raasay as providing the ingredients for the perfect dram, and planning permission to begin work revitalising the Isle of Raasay’s nineteenth century Borodale House into a state-of-the-art distillery, visitor centre, and luxury accommodation was granted in 2016. Starting with a blank sheet of paper, they set about designing a distillery to create exceptional whisky that develops elegance, complexity, depth early on in the maturation process and a handcrafted Hebridean gin that encapsulates Raasay’s style, character and impressive geological variety.
In 2017, our copper stills were switched on for the first time to produce the first ever spirit on the Isle of Raasay and in 2020 our Inaugural Release was launched to much acclaim, as well as our unique and tactile bottle design, laden with imprints of real fossils found on Raasay. We also released our Isle of Raasay Gin in 2019 just before our Inaugural Release, and it remains a solid customer favourite across the world. In 2021 we released our Isle of Raasay Signature Single Malt which we now ship all over the UK as well as approximately 40 international markets.
In Borodale House, we offer distillery tours & tastings 7 days a week in the high season and delicious meals everyday apart from Wednesdays and Thursdays, ensuring that guests can enjoy a full day trip or overnight stay to Raasay and are well looked after by our friendly team. We pride ourselves in our warm, highland hospitality, and were thrilled to win ‘Tourism Destination of the Year’ at the 2022 Scottish Whisky Awards, as well as the Tripadvisor ‘Travellers’ Choice’ in 2024.
Part of the distillery’s ethos is to produce, mature, bottle and market every drop of spirit directly from the island. This seeks to maximise the influence of the island on the spirit, and the distillery on the island. To quote the inimitable Whisky Writer, Dave Broom at our distillery opening: ‘we are not just making alcohol, we are making spirit.’ Since beginning the distillery, we now proudly employ over 40 people between our head office in Edinburgh and onsite on Raasay, creating and nurturing careers of both island natives and those who have moved to the Isle of Raasay, ensuring generations of islanders continue to thrive here.