#DramGoodTimes News: Plans Unveiled For Cabrach Distillery
A £6.5m heritage centre and distillery in the remote Highland area of the Cabrach has been unveiled after an architect’s impression has been revised.
The brand new build will celebrate the heritage and history of the remote rural area in Moray, Scotland. Once upon a time, this was at the centre of an illicit whisky-making in the 18th century.
The Cabrach is a unique and beautiful location rich in distilling history and typified by its haunting landscape and the great numbers of tumbledown crofts and steadings which once housed hundreds of illicit stills.
Cabrach Trust, who is leading the project has announced that it plans to include a museum of illicit whisky and smuggling, a learning centre and a working distillery as the previous operation was shut down in the 1830s.
Inverharroch Farm, eight miles away from Dufftown is where the centre is expected to open and attract over 20,000 visitors a year. From an employment stance, this will create the equivalent of 10 full-time jobs in the area.
Permission was granted in September 2017 and Forres based LDN Architects have been selected to draw up detailed plans while fund-raising activities take place and continue in the local community to help raise efficient funds for the project.
It looks like work on the centre and distillery can begin this year and aims to have them both completed and opened within the next few years.
‘The Cabrach has played a central role in Scottish history,’ said Dr Peter Bye Jensen, heritage manager of the Cabrach Trust.
‘It was the home of Jacobite rebels, its illegal whisky trade led to the Scotch whisky industry we know today, and its people fought in the country’s great wars – but all this was in danger of being forgotten.
‘The Heritage Centre will bring that history to life and unveil the secrets of the Cabrach through interactive exhibits where visitors will travel back in time to experience life in this harsh but beautiful place.’
Described as “An Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty.” local people are being invited to view the architect’s plans for the heritage centre during drop-in sessions, attended by new Cabrach Trust chief executive Anna Brennand, at the Grouse Inn, near Inverharroch Farm, from 6-8pm this Thursday, 28 March.