November 9 2020

Work has commenced on a 50m tall waterside distillery in Leith which promises to take the art of whisky production to new heights.

The £12m Port of Leith Distillery will rise alongside the Royal Yacht Britannia and command panoramic vistas to Edinburgh Castle and beyond from a rooftop bar.

Scheduled to open in 2022 the high-rise approach was necessitated by a highly constrained site of a mere third of an acre at Ocean Terminal, forcing Threesixty Architects to reach for the sky.

Co-founder Paddy Fletcher said: “To build enough capacity for our whisky we had to build up and that creates a unique building, we’re the only vertical distillery in Scotland. “The building starts with a rooftop restaurant and bar, underneath which are tasting rooms and a shop with whisky production at the bottom.”

fellow co-founder Ian Stirling added: “People don’t realise the key role that Edinburgh played in whisky production, at one time there were once eight distilleries operating in Edinburgh and we’re part of a renaissance in production.”

The £12m Port of Leith Distillery will rise alongside the Royal Yacht Britannia and command panoramic vistas to Edinburgh Castle and beyond from a rooftop bar.

2 Comments

#1 Posted by Hamish Ashcroft on 9 Nov 2020 at 14:51 PM

I like the building, but jesus the massive multi story beside it really dominates and it doesent exactly fit in with it. They really botched the design of Ocean Terminal. It could be so so much more

#2 Posted by Randall Sloan on 9 Nov 2020 at 15:36 PM

Someone should have told them that simply giving a building an exotic sounding name like "ocean terminal" or "porta" or whatever it is about to be re-christened as a charmed building that does not maketh. There are tens if not hundreds of examples of waterfront re-generation (Copenhagen et al) yet the re-development of Leith seems to have been purchased off the shelf from home bargains. What a missed opportunity.

I guess this tower is nice enough shame its surrounded by such drivel.

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