Our beloved Bunnahabhain — which means ‘mouth of the river’ in Gaelic, as it stands at the mouth of the Margadale Spring on the shores of the Sound of Islay — first came into existence in 1883. However, its origins can be traced back four years earlier when 1879 William Robertson of Robertson and Baxter Blending House joined with the Greenlees Brothers to create the Islay Distillery Company. And so, with the distillery built on a site close to the Margadale River 1883, Bunnahabhain was born.

In the early years, our distillery relied upon the sea trade. Armed only with a small village, a pier and lots of whisky-making know-how, our forefathers received supplies by boat and sent adventuring seafarers back to the mainland along the Sound of Islay with the ‘good stuff’ casks.  This daring spirit and coastal living has made Bunnahabhain what it is today and continues to play an important role in the production of the ever-increasing range of Bunnahabhain Single Malts.

Bunnahabhain is the only distillery on Islay to produce whisky using pure spring water and also boasts the tallest stills on Islay, both of which combine to produce a light, aromatic and complex spirit. At Bunnahabhain all our single malt is non-chillfiltered and natural in colour – the way whisky would have been produced at the hands of our forebears many years ago.