Speyside > Cragganmore

In 1869 John Smith, who was already running the Ballindalloch and Glenfarclas distilleries at the time, founded Cragganmore distillery. He had also held managerial positions at the Macallan and Glenlivet distilleries before that. This was the first distillery to take advantage of the Speyside railway line and was the first to use "whisky specials"- long trains for distributing whisky and casks. Cragganmore was refurbished and modernised in 1901 by Gordon Smith, John Smith's son, with help from the whisky architect Charles Doig. The distillery is located beside the Craggan Mor hill, where it took its name from, and the Craggan burn both of which attracted John Smith to the site. He used the greenstone from the Craggan Mor hill to construct the buildings and used process water from the Craggan burn. The distilling equipment used is rather unusual. Flat topped stills with t-shaped lyne arms are used, instead of the more common swan necks.                                                                             

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