Gledfield Distillery founder announces visitor centre plans in historic Kyle of Sutherland site

Ciara Bow has achieved more than most in her 25 years, but she’s only just getting started as Rosalind Erskine finds out.

Most people in their early twenties are still starting out in their career or trying to figure out what their work trajectory may look like. I know, from my own experience, while I was working in publishing I wasn’t exactly sure of where I wanted to be or what the next 10 years would look like (which was probably for the best), but the same cannot be said for Ciara Bow, an award-winning entrepreneur and the founder of Gledfield Distillery.

While Ciara started out, as many young adults do, finding a job as a stop gap - for her it was a tour guide in Clynelish Distillery - she quickly found that she was in the exact right industry, the love of which has led her to gain qualifications, awards and has ultimately led her on the path to her own distillery.

“When I was 18 years old, I got a job as a tour guide in a whisky distillery, which I thought would be a temporary job for the summer. But I loved everything about working in the distillery and I decided I wanted to try and make a career out of it."

Ciara Bow is on route to open Gledfield Distillery in the Highlands.

Ciara worked her way up to become a lead guide and that came with a bit more responsibility with regards to helping with the management of the visitor centre. She gained more qualifications at this time: “Then I decided I wanted to learn more about distilling, so I studied my General Certificate in Distilling with the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, which I did by a distance learning. Meanwhile, I also gained qualifications in welding fabrication and engineering at a local engineering school, the Nigg Skills Academy and that was great because it gave me some really good hands-on experience with engineering”.

At this time, Brora was gearing up to reopen - a huge moment for the area and the whisky industry in general, and Ciara was taken on as the senior distiller at the former ghost site. Not only that, she was the only female distiller which she describes as “absolutely incredible.”

“I joined when they were still reconstructing the distillery so I turned up and it was basically a building site but it was amazing to be involved in the process of bringing it back to life.” After two years Ciara decided to ‘take a leap of faith’ and start her own distillery, which is when Gledfield was born.

Ciara has taken her experience and qualifications and combined them with her family history to come up with the business plan behind Gledfield.

Ciara is making botanical spirit, like gin, but without juniper.

She said: “I am very much driven by passion, as I have such a love for the industry and there is whisky history throughout my family. So many of my relatives and ancestors were involved in whisky including my great great granny, Marjorie McBeath. She was an illicit brewer and distiller, she didn’t have much, she lived on a croft and used what she had to hand to distil. You could argue this was the first whisky of the Highlands because back in those days, and it was only the rich who could afford malt. Marjorie didn't have malt so she used oats (to make spirit), so it's really interesting looking back at her story.”

It's this family history that has inspired Gledfield as Ciara is trying to recreate Marjorie’s recipe by creating a range of botanical spirits that are similar to gin, but without the juniper berries. Ciara explained: “I'm using botanicals inspired by the local Scottish countryside - botanicals that Marjorie might have used. I've been experimenting with apples, elderflowers, heather from the hills, Scots pine from the local forest, thistles, dandelions, and nettles. I'm developing three recipes at the moment, and each one has a completely different flavour profile. The first one has more of a floral palette. The second one is quite fruity with a little bit of spiciness and the last one is more of a coastal inspired flavour with some citrus notes as well.”

Not knowing much about running a business, Ciara turned to her local university the University of the Highlands and Islands, where she applied for the business competition. She was asked to pitch, and despite being very nervous, she won the top prize. “That was the catalyst,” she said: “after that happened, my whole business idea just absolutely exploded and I was just inundated with requests from people in organisations coming forward to help and support me to make this a reality, which was so lovely.” Having outgrown her kitchen, Ciara found premises in an industrial unit in Tain, after winning funding from Scottish Edge. At the end of last month, Ciara realised her long term dream of establishing a business in the Kyle of Sutherland, as she’s going to be working with Balnagown Estate to breathe new life into the Ice House in Ardgay. This historic landmark will be refurbished into the Gledfield distillery visitor centre.

Ciara is crowdfunding for Gledfield, and has raised over £7,000 at time of publication. Of this she said: “I’m looking to raise £25,000 to purchase equipment for the distillery, including a 100-litre pot still. My crowdfunding campaign is hosted on a new platform developed by Women's Enterprise Scotland, for women-owned and women-led businesses, and I'm very honoured to be participating in the pilot.” If you’re tired just reading this, Ciara is still not done. She wants to bring job prospects and tourism to her local area, saying: “I'm really keen to create jobs for young people like me, especially young women, because there's not many women who work in distilling. I never thought it would be an option for me, so I want to try and make sure that other women do see it as an option for them. I want to create apprenticeships for young people to come along and learn on the job just like I did. These will be well paid jobs as well and long term jobs in skilled employment, which is something that we're quite short of up here in this rural area. I'm also really passionate about bringing more tourism into the area as well, because we're so close to the north coast 500 but usually tourists and visitors bypass Kyle of Sutherland because there's not much here to actually bring people in. So by creating a visitor centre, I want to encourage more tourism into the area which will hopefully give the local economy a boost.”

The recipe for the botanical spirit is inspired by Ciara's great, great granny Marjorie MacBeath.

This fledgling business is off to a cracking start, and with a launch date of summer 2024 for the first spirit and the potential to make whisky (‘never say never’ said Ciara), Gledfield Distillery and Ciara Bow are ones to watch.

To find out more about Ciara’s business and donate to the crowdfunding campaign, visit https://womensbusinesscentre.com/product/gledfield-distillery-help-us-to-bring-an-ancient-botanical-spirit-back-to-life/