About
New distillery planned for the site of the former Bon Accord Drinks factory (operated 1903-2000) on Greyhope Road, Aberdeen. Planning approved early 2025, construction expected summer 2025, first bottling planned 2028. Partnership with Fierce Beer brewery. Managing director is award-winning chef John Chomba. Will produce single malt Scotch whisky with visitor centre, guided tours, interactive exhibits, tasting sessions, and local food business showcase.
Production Details
The Bon Accord Tale
Where the North Sea meets the granite city of Aberdeen, on Greyhope Road in the shadow of industrial memory, something ancient stirs in modern plans. The Highlands stretch inland from this northeastern coast, but here the whisky story begins not with Highland tradition, but with Highland ambition.
For nearly a century, the Bon Accord Drinks factory hummed on this spot, from 1903 until the millennium's turn. Workers bottled Scotland's liquid heritage for distant tables, their hands familiar with glass and cork but not copper and flame. When the last bottle rolled off the line in 2000, the building fell silent. The granite endured.
Twenty-five years later, in 2025, planning permission breathed new life into these walls. Where once they bottled whisky made elsewhere, they would craft their own. The Bon Accord Distillery would rise from industrial bones, transforming a site that knew Scotland's liquid culture into one that would create it.
This is Aberdeenshire whisky-making—urban Highland character shaped by sea salt and granite determination. Managing director John Chomba brings a chef's understanding of flavor and craft, while partnership with Fierce Beer speaks to Aberdeen's modern brewing renaissance. Here, whisky tradition meets contemporary Scottish innovation.
The North Sea's influence runs deeper than geography. Aberdeen's maritime heritage—oil rigs and fishing fleets, harbor winds and granite steadfastness—will shape whatever flows from these future stills. This is Highland whisky with a harbor heartbeat, where tradition adapts to place rather than simply repeating elsewhere's patterns.
Construction begins summer 2025, with first bottling planned for 2028. The visitor center will showcase local food alongside whisky, acknowledging that Aberdeen's story runs through more than malt and barley. Interactive exhibits and guided tours will translate the ancient craft for modern visitors, while tasting sessions will introduce palates to whatever character emerges from this granite-bound corner of the Highlands.
The stills are not yet fired, the mash tun not yet filled. But on Greyhope Road, where industrial memory meets Highland possibility, Aberdeen prepares to add its voice to Scotland's whisky conversation. The North Sea watches, patient as granite, ready to witness what rises from these familiar stones.