Brora distillery closed in 1983 and ceded its original name – Clynelish – to the new distillery built just across the road from it. Brora, viewed from the outside with its hump-backed hill rising behind, is a fine example of the classic, close-knit little Victorian distillery – steeply sloping warehouse roofs, an imperious pagoda head rising high above everything but the chimney-stack and a fort-like cluster of stone buildings round a courtyard.

The distillery was founded in 1819 by the Marquis of Stafford who had married into the Sutherland family. His idea was at least partly to take control of local whisky-supply away from the smugglers.

There were several licensees up to 1834 when Andrew Ross took over for a dozen years. In 1896, Glasgow blenders, Ainslie’s, bought the distillery and rebuilt it to the form it has today, and the distillery eventually passed to DCL. There is one pair of stills and the floor maltings and kiln are still in place.