Dunnet Bay Distillers has lodged plans for a temporary visitor and community building and café in the grounds of the ancient Castletown Mill building.
The Caithness-based company, producer of the multi-award-winning Rock Rose Gin brand, acquired the 200-year-old Mill with a view to restoring it to its former glory and protecting its heritage status.
The site is close to the existing Dunnet Bay Distillers headquarters, a family-owned company run by Claire Murray and Martin Murray on the north coast of Scotland.
In order to help fund the redevelopment of this landmark building, the company hopes to help pay for the project with a sustainable temporary structure bringing new jobs to the area and paving the way for this becoming a visitor destination.
The sustainable temporary building will be created from three shipping containers. As well as providing a café there will be a shop and community hub where people can attend events to learn more about the history and the future of the site.
Martin Murray said: "We're excited. A temporary building means just that: it will be there whilst we are creating our new home for whisky, vodka and gin production. It's good news for the local community as it will create new jobs.
"We are already an important and valued employer in this small coastal community and we are energised by the idea of helping Thurso become an even more popular destination. We therefore expect this initiative to help other local businesses too."
If planning permission is granted, and once refurbished, the old Castletown Mill will take over from the temporary shipping container centre giving way to a long-term brand home and distillery for Rock Rose Gin, Holy Grass Vodka and a new Scottish whisky.
Major Scottish waterpark plans unveiled
PLANS have been unveiled for a major adventure waterpark in West Lothian.
Wild Shore, which already operates in Dundee, Delamere, Liverpool and New Brighton, is establishing the waterpark at the historic brickworks and quarry in Winchburgh through a seven-figure investment.
Covid restrictions are 'kryptonite' for pubs, Wetherspoon chief declares
THE outspoken chairman of JD Wetherspoon has branded restrictions imposed by government to limit the spread of Covid as “kryptonite” for the hospitality industry, while highlighting pressure from rising food, drink and energy costs.
Tim Martin declared this morning that the “readiness” of major UK political parties to “resort to lockdowns and extreme restrictions” represent the “main threat to the future of the hospitality industry”, as it reported a loss before tax of £21.3 million for the 26 weeks ended January 23.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here