Banff Whisky

Banff was a Highland single malt distillery at Inverboyndie, close to the north-east coast of Scotland. Its roots go back to the early nineteenth century, though the later distillery site dated from the 1860s, after production moved from the original Mill of Banff location.

The distillery had one of the more eventful histories in Scotch whisky, marked by repeated fires, wartime damage and a serious stillhouse explosion in the 1950s. It was eventually mothballed in 1983 during the wider industry downturn, and the remaining buildings were later dismantled or destroyed, including the final warehouse, which was lost to fire in 1991.

Banff was never widely promoted as a single malt during its working life, so most surviving examples come from official rare releases and independent bottlings. The whisky is often described as old-style Highland in character, with notes of orchard fruit, malt, honey, light smoke, nuts, herbs and gentle waxiness, while older casks can develop polished oak, dried fruit, tobacco and more savoury complexity.

Banff now sits firmly among Scotland's lost distilleries: finite, increasingly scarce and shaped as much by its turbulent history as by the whisky itself. The best remaining bottlings preserve a distinctive north-eastern Highland style that has become harder to find with each passing year.