A grain whisky distillery with a brief but colourful history, whose location near Alloa, in the Scottish industrial belt, was far from being anywhere near the North of Scotland! However, it recalled a distillery of that name which existed near Aberdeen and was destroyed by fire in the late 19th century, but clearly before Alfred Barnard made his famous sojourn in the late 1880’s.

This was the initiative of George Christie, a whisky entrepreneur of some note, who acquired Knox’s brewery in 1957 and proceeded to turn it into a distillery. It started out as a malt whisky distillery by the name of Strathmore, but using patent stills. That curious experiment lasted about a year and in January 1960 production was switched exclusively to grain whisky. There is rumoured to be a couple of bottles of Strathmore malt still in existence, but seekers should be careful not to confuse it with a blend of the same name which was marketed for a while by a subsidiary company.

Due to the general over-supply situation in the industry North of Scotland closed in 1980 and was sold to DCL in 1982. The stills and equipment were removed and transferred to other distilleries, including nearby Cambus, which also belonged to DCL. The buildings remain as bonded warehouses for Diageo.