Brora Whisky

Brora is one of the most evocative names in Highland single malt whisky, produced in the coastal village of Brora in Sutherland. The distillery began life in 1819 as Clynelish, before taking the Brora name in 1969 when the newer Clynelish distillery was built nearby.

For decades, Brora's reputation rested on scarcity. The distillery was closed in 1983 and became one of Scotland's most sought-after "lost" distilleries, with surviving bottlings from its earlier years becoming prized by collectors and enthusiasts. Diageo later restored the site, and Brora returned to production in 2021 after a long period of silence.

Historic Brora is especially admired for its range of styles. Some bottlings are powerfully peated, reflecting production from the late 1960s and early 1970s, while others show a more restrained Highland profile of waxy fruit, malt, mineral notes, gentle smoke, coastal freshness and polished oak. The newly distilled spirit will take time to establish its own mature identity, but the revived distillery has been carefully positioned as a rare and highly controlled single malt producer.

Today, Brora sits between legend and renewal: no longer simply a closed distillery remembered through dwindling old casks, but a restored Highland name whose future will inevitably be judged against one of Scotch whisky's most compelling pasts.