Fire breaks out at Highland gin and whisky distillery

A fire has broken out in the wood chip store at Glenwyvis Distillery in Dingwall.
Picture: Glenwyvis DistilleryPicture: Glenwyvis Distillery
Picture: Glenwyvis Distillery

The only community-owned distillery in Scotland, Glenwyvis currently distils Goodwill Gin and their own whisky, which hasn’t been released yet.

Posting on their social media around 5.30pm yesterday, the team wrote: “Today 18th October at 3:20pm a fire was discovered by GlenWyvis staff within the wood chip storage area at the distillery. Scottish fire and rescue services were called to the scene, where fire officers wearing breathing apparatus undertook fire fighting activities.

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“At this time 3 fire appliances are still on site and the wood chip store has been continuously dowsed down. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time. A full fire investigation will be carried out in due course. Further information will follow when it is available.”

Updates continued with the team commenting: “The fire continues to burn within the woodchip store at the distillery. Contractors are moving on site to break into the store today supported by Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

“Hopefully fire fighting activities will be concluded today and we can then take stock of the damage and the recovery plan for the distillery.”

At around 8pm this evening they confirmed that the fire was finally out, saying: “The fire within the wood chip store has now been extinguished with the store being fully emptied.

“We would like to publicly thank The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service crews from Dingwall, Beauly and Inverness for their hard work and perseverance. Thanks also to Sandy, Tom, GlenWyvis staff and volunteer board members for their efforts.

“We will continue the cleanup, investigate the root cause and implement a recovery plan over the next few days and weeks.”

As well as being community-owned, Glenwyvis Distillery is also extremely eco-friendly, as it has it’s own wind turbine, hydro power and solar power.

The Glenwyvis Goodwill gin and its seasonal release – Goodwill Christmas Gin – have both won awards at the International Wine & Spirit Competition.