Shetland is to get its first whisky distillery in a venture that has been over ten years in the making.

Lerwick Distillery will open its doors later this year with plans for customer tours as part of the business offering.

The concept that began more than a decade ago between founders Martin Watt and Calum Miller and Caroline MacIntyre, who is also sales director, and is now nearing completion. They found a site for the distillery in 2022 and have since been planning the build and eventual opening.

It comes after the business owners accessed specialist advice from Scottish Government-backed Business Gateway.

As well as Mr Watt and Mr Miller, who have established backgrounds in chartered accountancy and architecture, Lerwick Distillery also Ian Millar on board as master distiller.

Ms MacIntyre has extensive experience in hospitality and sales, while Mr Miller has worked in the whisky industry for over 50 years and has worked with a number of major whisky brands, including almost 25 years at William Grant & Sons.

The firm said: “Scottish law dictates that a spirit cannot legally be called a whisky until it has matured for at least three years and one day, and the distillery plans to bottle a ‘new make’ spirit to cover operational costs for the first few years. This product will be called Haad Still – a traditional Shetland phrase for ‘hold on’, encouraging people to wait for the whisky to mature.

“In time, the distillery will also offer tours to customers, with tourists being a particular target market.”

The Herald: The business accessed a start-up grant from Shetland Islands Council, which contributed to photography costs for use on social media.The business accessed a start-up grant from Shetland Islands Council, which contributed to photography costs for use on social media. (Image: Lerwick Distillery)

Having secured the site in 2022, the team accessed business advice from Business Gateway after a recommendation from Shetland Islands Council, and met Business Gateway adviser, Diana Abernethy. Ms Abernethy provided one-to-one support to the team in advance of distilling, helped raise their profile and signposted them to avenues to access vital funding.

The business accessed a start-up grant from Shetland Islands Council, which contributed to photography costs for use on social media. The social media and imagery directly helped raise share capital towards the opening of the distillery.

The firm’s initial funding target was to raise £1m, but they far exceeded this, and have been able to secure premises that are four times the original size they had planned.

 “The support that we received from Business Gateway has been excellent,” said Mr Watt said. “Diana was able to point out things that we had missed in our business plan, and gave us access to great contacts to help us develop.”

“If it hadn’t been for the funding Business Gateway signposted us to, we would not have raised enough share capital to be able to expand the business so quickly. The £4,000 funding resulted in an extra £682,000 share capital investment that really wasn't expected. We truly couldn’t have done this without Business Gateway.”

Ms Abernethy, Business Gateway adviser said: “Shetland is the last area of the UK without a distillery, so to be able to help Martin, Callum and Caroline reach the goal of being the first distillery on the island has been fantastic. It’s an exciting brand and journey they’re embarking on and will give such a boost to tourism in the area and the local economy.”

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