Landscape photograph of Clynelish distillery.

Distillery · Rank 31

Clynelish

Clynelish is prized for a waxy, citrus-led northern Highland spirit with mineral, maritime, and honeyed notes.

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Common information

At a glance.

Region: Highlands
Location: Brora, Sutherland (opens in a new tab)
Date opened: 1967
Volume: 4.8m LPA
Distillery Master: Not publicly identified
Collection records: 1 record
Production rank: 31 of 141 by listed capacity

Production

Distinct house style

Clynelish is prized for a waxy, citrus-led northern Highland spirit with mineral, maritime, and honeyed notes.

Careful management of clear and cloudy wort, long fermentation and the still-house regime preserve the waxy texture that distinguishes Clynelish from neighbouring Brora.

Process

The useful details are physical.

Still shape, fermentation, condensation, peat policy and cask selection are treated here as production choices—not as guarantees that every release will taste identical.

House style

Character before marketing.

The distillery character describes the underlying make. Age, batch and cask history can move an individual bottling well beyond that starting point.

History

From its beginnings

The present distillery opened in 1967 beside the original 1819 Clynelish site, which was later renamed Brora. The newer plant retained the Clynelish name.

Clynelish remains an operating Scotch whisky distillery at Brora, Sutherland. Its present identity joins the accumulated fabric of the site to an active production tradition, while discontinued bottlings belong to the range history rather than defining the distillery today.

1967

Foundation

The working chronology begins in 1967; later closures, rebuilding or ownership changes are part of the individual history rather than a reason to reset that founding date.

Present day

Continuity is not stasis.

Equipment, capacity and ranges evolve. The identity of the distillery is carried by its site, production knowledge and maturing stock rather than by one frozen historic specification.

Identity

The character

Clynelish belongs to the Highlands, but region is only a map reference. Its more informative identity comes from the production decisions above and from the way its spirit responds to maturation.

This distinction matters when reading a bottle: the distillery name identifies the origin of the spirit, while the expression, age, cask recipe and bottling strength describe the particular release.

Place

Brora, Sutherland

Brora, Sutherland is the operating location recorded for Clynelish; the map link above opens the site independently of any visitor-centre branding.

Region

the Highlands

The regional label is retained for navigation and comparison, not presented as a complete prediction of flavour.

Distillery details

Important facts

A distillery is best understood through its permanent site story, working methods and maturing stock rather than through an old award list or one discontinued expression. The range plate below records a particular moment in that longer life.

Distinctive record

One detail worth retaining.

The present distillery opened beside the 1819 Clynelish in 1967. The older plant was renamed Brora, leaving two distinct production histories on one Sutherland site.

Production signature

A repeatable house method.

Careful management of clear and cloudy wort, long fermentation and the still-house regime preserve the waxy texture that distinguishes Clynelish from neighbouring Brora.

Range context

A changing family of expressions.

The final image may include past expressions. It is a visual archive of the whisky family, not a promise that every bottle remains in the current range.

Whisky range

A group of Clynelish whisky expressions from the editorial archive.

Scotch Whisky Collection

1 record.

Collection photograph filed under the owner-supplied working label “Clynelish 14”; bottle facts await review.

Highlands

Clynelish 14

Clynelish

14 years