GlenGildie Distillery

 

The GlenGildie distillery didn't start out as a distillery at all, it started as a "Wall of Death" fairground show! I was looking for a new project and had been fascinated by the current BBC continuity sequences, one of which shows an old-fashioned Wall of Death ride

So, I made this thing, a 10m wide wooden drum, bought a motorcycle, and tried to make it work. So as I'm falling off the motorcycle, I thought to myself, "This looks like a washback, in a distillery...." So I built one around it..

The completed distillery building

This is how it all began, with a timber drum that became one of the "washbacks" of the brewing side of the process.

The distillery is a freelance model of a typical Scotch whisky distillery. Some features have been "borrowed" from real locations, the Dunnage houses are from Ardbeg for example

An early version of the distillery with just two Dunnage houses and one malt kiln. The third Dunnage house was added to house the exhibition and visitor centre. The second malt barn was added because it looked better!
Of the 88 real world distilleries in Scotland, more than two thirds have some sort of visitor services or an exhibition. The Visitor Center at GlenGildie has an exhibition describing the process of making whisky, and a shop selling appropriate souvenirs of your visit.
Throughout the building there are a number of "info-bubbles". Click on these to access additional information about each stage of the process of making whisky.
The malt barn, where barley is germinated to express the sugars locked up in the starchy part of the grain.
The Stillhouse, where traditional copper pot stills are used to distill the raw spirit.
The Dunnage house, where the casks of whisky are laid down for a minimum of 3 years to mature.
The "Wee Hoose" tasting room, where you can enjoy a glass of our 12 year old single malt beside a roaring coal fire.
The GlenGildie Centre is a three storey bonded warehaouse adjacent to the main distillery site, recently converted into a concert and entertainment venue
The centre boats a meeting area, a bar, an art allery and a 200 seater concert venue with stunning westward views, ideal for sunset concerts.

You can take the self-guided tour of the distillery, or you can IM me Grey Blackadder, to arrange a personal tour of the building.

Because the hosting region, Alfred Island, was sold to be redeveloped in January 2009, The GlenGildie Distillery was closed and dismantled, as was the GlenGildie Centre and the GlenGildie Experience (see below).

The GlenGildie Experience was established in the Scotland sim to give more exposure to the GlenGildie Distillery projects.

Situated in a double-fronted shop on the Royal Mile, the GlenGildie Experience uses wrap around panoramic projection to give taste of what the Distillery has to offer, with a landmark and notecard giver to supplement the presentation.