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Scottish government gives
go ahead for the £40 million Jedhart and Mossburn distilleries
at the former site of the Jedforest hotel in the Scottish Borders.
You may recall that back in early 2014 plans were
unveiled for a £40 million distillery at the former
site for the Jedforest hotel at Camptown, three
miles south of Jedburgh in the Scottish borders.
Although the project received the full support from
local councillors late last year it still required
Scottish government clearance due to flooding issues
flagged up by the Scottish Environment Protection
Agency. I am pleased to say that the Scottish government has
now cleared the way for
the planned £40m Jedhart and Mossburn whisky
distilleries in the Borders to
proceed by confirming that it does not intend to
intervene in the proposed distillery, allowing the
Scottish Borders Council to give the go ahead to
the project.
A two phase development at the former site of the
Jedforest hotel is being proposed by Mossburn
Distillers, the folks behind the new £5 million Torabhaig Distillery on the Isle of Skye which is
due to go into production very soon. The project
will see two whisky distilleries, a bottling hall,
maturation warehouses, offices and a visitor centre
constructed, it will create around 50 jobs and
should be a huge boost to the Borders both now and
in the future.
The first phase of the development which will take place between 2017 and
2018 will see the construction of the Jedhart
Distillery and visitor centre, a small distillery built
to educate visitors in the craft of making
spirit. The Jedhart Distillery still house will have
three copper stills and a small café which can cater
for 36 people. Five 5,000 square metre warehouses
will also be constructed during phase one to store
pallets and casks.
Phase two of the project will see the construction
of the much larger scale Mossburn Distillery with an annual
capacity of 25 million litres per year. While
Mossburn will be much larger with a significantly
larger production output, the design of the Mossburn
distillery will be a mirror image of Jedhart even
the cafe at Mossburn will be larger, covering for
140 people and there will be a 120 cover restaurant
and an entertainment area. Mossburn will be
scheduled to be completed by 2021.
Exact details of the style of malt whisky the new
distillery will produce is still unknown but it is
likely to be a light Lowland style, but they may
surprise us and I hope they do. Mossburn Distillers seem to have the
finances for the project and it is not expected that
they will be selling new make spirit or producing
gin to support their business while waiting for
their Scotch to mature.
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