Bunnahabhain
Until the 1960s, the only way to reach Bunnahabhain was by boat — it's still at the end of a single-track road today, tucked into Islay's remote northern coast. And where every other distillery on the island chases peat smoke, Bunnahabhain famously doesn't: it's the island's great unpeated outlier, made on the tallest stills on Islay.
An old sailor's welcome at the end of a wild road.
Bunnahabhain sits right at Islay's northern edge, on the shore of the Sound of Islay with the hills of Jura filling the view. Getting there feels like an occasion in itself — the last few miles wind along the coast with nothing else around, which only makes arriving feel earned.
Founded in 1881 by William Robertson and the Greenless Brothers — the same year as Bruichladdich, built the same year on the opposite side of the island — Bunnahabhain has spent well over a century doing its own thing.
Right by the distillery, there's a stony beach looking straight out over the Sound of Islay to Jura — calm, sheltered, and one of the nicest spots on the island for a picnic. Bring something to eat and give yourself twenty minutes to just sit there, before or after your tour.
- It's pronounced "BU-nah-HAV-en." Our guide to saying them all has the rest.
- The village of Bunnahabhain itself was purpose-built in 1881 to house the distillery's workers — and the distillery still employs most of the village today, a genuine company town, one of very few left in Scotland.
- The walk in from Port Askaig takes about an hour to ninety minutes and is, by the distillery's own admission, "one of the most spectacular and peaceful on the whole island" — just come prepared, since it's not unusual to see all four seasons in one walk.
- Warehouse 9, behind its distinctive black door, is a converted floor maltings — the building that once malted Bunnahabhain's barley now quietly matures it instead.
Bunnahabhain is Islay's great contrarian. While its neighbours built reputations on peat smoke, Bunnahabhain's signature style is unpeated — light, oily, and maritime, shaped by unusually tall stills that let only the cleanest vapour through. Water piped in from the Margadale River and full maturation in sherry casks give it real depth despite the lack of smoke, and it's bottled with no added colour and no chill-filtration throughout. For anyone curious about the peated side, the An Cuan Garbh series is Bunnahabhain's answer — proof the distillery can do smoke too, it just usually chooses not to.
Bunnahabhain was built in 1879 and officially established in 1881, founded by William Robertson and the Greenless Brothers on a stretch of coast so remote that everything — barley in, whisky out — travelled by sea. That stayed true until the 1960s, when a proper road finally connected the distillery to the rest of the island.
The 20th century wasn't always kind. The global economic downturn of 1930 hit small, remote producers hardest, and Bunnahabhain closed its doors entirely, not reopening for seven years. It recovered, added two more stills in 1963 to keep up with growing demand, and passed through a series of owners — Highland Distilleries from 1887, Burn Stewart Distilleries from 2006, and CVH Spirits today.
Through all of it, Bunnahabhain kept doing the one thing that set it apart from almost every other name on Islay: making whisky that doesn't taste of peat smoke. In an odd bit of symmetry, the next genuinely new distillery built on Islay after Bunnahabhain didn't arrive for 124 years — Kilchoman, in 2005.