Location: Bowmore, Loch Indaal, Islay.

Visitors Centre: Open all year, Tel: (Scotland) 01496 810441.
Opening hours: Mon to Fri, Tours from 1000. Last Tour 1530.

The Whisky
Bowmore is a gentle whisky, only a little peat is used in malting and some claim that its geographical situation on the island gives it a balance between the intense malts of the southern shores and the subtler ones of the north.

The Distillery
Nestling in the hills above the shores of Loch Indaal is the village of Bowmore, considered to be the 'capital' of Islay. The distillery buildings are on the quayside.

Bowmore Distillery was established in 1779 by a local merchant, one John Simpson. One of the earliest legal distilleries on the island, it was also owner-operated which, at that time, was unusual, since most proprietors on Islay leased out their distilleries. It was later taken over by one James Mutter and his family: Mutter, as well as being a farmer and distiller had the unlikely role of Ottoman, Portuguese and Brazilian Vice-Consul in Glasgow.

Mutter considerably expanded the distillery and thus the Bowmore name began to travel and demand grew. The family kept the distillery until the 1890s when it was sold and became the Bowmore Distillery Co. During the Second World War the buildings were used as a coastal command base by the Air Ministry and the distillery was acquired by Stanley P. Morrison in 1963.
Morrison's rebuilt and renovated many of the buildings, retaining the malting floors which are still used today.