The Project

Situated next to Holyrood Park, our city-centre distillery is located right in the heart of Edinburgh’s distilling history – on St. Leonard’s Lane. The 180 year old building will be thoughtfully renovated to suit our distilling needs, while making room for the visitors we look forward to welcoming. Our visitor centre will be unique:  a hands-on, sensory, educational experience that will enlighten and delight people as they explore the world of flavour while touring a working distillery.

Holyrood Distillery’s home is a B-listed building which was built in 1835 as part of the Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway (E&DR). The E&DR was known as “The Innocent Railway” and much of the original right-of-way still exists as a bike and pedestrian path, including an atmospheric 1/3-mile tunnel under Holyrood Park. The E&DR pre-dated steam locomotives and the carriages were initially pulled by horses until they reached an incline at the tunnel, after which the carriages were connected by cables to two steam engines to pull them up to the yard where our building sits as the last reminder of Edinburgh’s first railway.