Macallan: a tour of the distillery in the running to be named UK's best new building
By Sean Murphy
Published 18th Jul 2019, 15:41 BST
The new distillery
As the 'high-tech and futuristic' Macallan Distillery and Visitor Experience in Speyside is named in the running to be named Britain's best new building, we take a closer look at this incredible new facility.
The £140 million state-of-the-art facility, which opened in summer last year, is going up against a cork house, an opera theatre and a council estate to take the crown. Here is what it looks like inside and out.
The building is made up of five peaks that represent the rolling hills of Speyside.
The roof has been carpeted with 14,000 m2 of meadow including 10cm of soil and an irrigation system which has been seeded with a mix of indigenous grasses and wildflowers.
The entrance doesn't really give much away to visitors about what to expect.
This gives the impression of almost going underground.
The incredible wall of Macallan bottles that greets you upon entering. The ceiling is one of the most complex timber roofs in the world with 380,000 individual components and 2,500 roof panels
400 people specialising in more than 20 different trades including coppersmiths, master joiners and craftspeople come together and worked for three and a half years to create the new distillery.
