Portintruan
Not open to visitors yet. Elixir Distillers' own site still describes Portintruan as in progress, though its licence application to Argyll and Bute Council describes a completed distillery and visitor centre with a bar, restaurant, shop and guided tours. Third-party reports have claimed a summer 2026 opening; the owner hasn't confirmed one. Worth watching rather than planning around.
Not yet — but the licence application describes a bar, restaurant, shop and courtyard alongside the stills, and a whisky bar built around one of the world's great collections of old and rare bottlings.
Elixir Distillers' Islay distillery, in progress at Port Ellen — floor maltings and direct-fired stills.
Portintruan sits just outside Port Ellen on Islay's south coast, on the historic farm estate it takes its name from — pronounced port-nah-truan, meaning 'place of the stream'. It is Elixir Distillers' first distillery, the company behind The Whisky Exchange moving from bottling and blending into distilling, with Georgie Crawford as distillery manager.
Two choices make it unusual for a new Islay distillery: on-site floor maltings and direct-fired stills, both old methods rather than modern shortcuts. Ground was broken at the end of 2020; construction stalled in 2024 when the main contractor collapsed, and resumed in 2025.
What is planned is more than a distillery. The licence application describes a bar, restaurant, retail shop and courtyard alongside the production side, with guided tours and tastings — and a whisky bar built around Sukhinder Singh's collection of old and rare bottlings, including a request to pour 10ml measures so that genuinely scarce whiskies can be tasted rather than only admired.
It is not open to visitors. It stands on the Three Distilleries Pathway out of Port Ellen, so anyone walking that route will pass it — but passing is all you can do for now.
- Named for the farm estate it stands on — Portintruan, 'place of the stream', pronounced port-nah-truan
- On-site floor maltings and direct-fired stills: two old methods almost nobody builds new any more
- Founded by Sukhinder and Rajbir Singh, who built The Whisky Exchange before selling it
- The licence application asks permission to pour 10ml measures, so genuinely rare whiskies can be tasted rather than only looked at
- Construction stalled for a year in 2024 when the main contractor collapsed, and restarted in 2025
- It stands on the Three Distilleries Pathway out of Port Ellen — walkers already pass the gate