February 17 2022

Plans for a town centre distillery in the heart of Campbeltown have been drawn up by Bowman Stewart Architects.

The Dal Riata Distillery is to be built on Kinloch Road with a capacity for producing 850,000 litres of pure alcohol per year using local barley grown at Dunadd Hillfort, former capital of the ancient kingdom of Dal Riata.

Centred on a dramatic still house with floor to ceiling glazing and a viewing gallery overlooking Campbeltown Loch and Bay the distillery will include an adjacent shop and visitor centre.

Co-director Iain Croucher commented: "The addition of this distillery to the Campbeltown region will reinforce the town’s place in the story of Scotch and Dál Riata will be a new chapter to an already incredible history.”

Harking back to Campbeltown's turn of the 20th-century heyday as a seat of whisky production, when over 30 distilleries were in production, Dal Riata will join three surviving distilleries at Springbank, Glengyle and Glen Scotia.

3 Comments

#1 Posted by monkey9000 on 17 Feb 2022 at 15:05 PM

Those are very thin curtain wall backboxes, what are they made of, Carbon Fibre, Kevlar?... Unfortunately, the as built is going to look nothing as lightweight as this.

#2 Posted by FHM on 18 Feb 2022 at 09:14 AM

#1 to be fair to the designers, they have shown a large glulam timber frame behind the glazing which is presumably taking the majority of the loads, so that would enable the glazing frames to be more slender in section, fixing back to the first floor. So even with a thicker backbox, I still think the overall look will be the same.

#3 Posted by Bucky fuller on 18 Feb 2022 at 09:32 AM

#1 is spot on. This is just artistic license. Never mind the absence of 210mm boxes, but the dgu's are massive and the centres of the mullions are too far apart. Not to mention the severe wind loading. Not to mention the sky hooks supporting the first floor floating screed. All known as structural meringue. Good luck with that.

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