“The only indoor swimming pool on Islay, and the water's warm for an unusual reason: waste heat piped in from Bowmore Distillery next door keeps it warm — adjustable between 29.5–31.5°C. Even the roofline plays along — the pool hall's ventilation turrets were built in the 2010 refit to match the distillery's own pagoda vents.”
Built in 1991 inside a former Bowmore Distillery warehouse, donated by the distillery and named for Sir Ian Mactaggart, this is Bowmore's community leisure centre: a 25-metre, four-lane pool, gym, sauna, and function room, community-run, not privately owned. A 2010 refit gave the pool hall a wooden ceiling built to look like the inside of a whisky cask — a nod to what's warming the water below it.
- Heated using waste heat from Bowmore Distillery next door
- Swimming pool, fitness studio, and sauna
- A genuinely distinctive whisky-adjacent story
The centre was built through Islay & Jura Community Enterprises Limited, a charitable company formed in 1989 that raised around £1 million to convert one of Bowmore Distillery's old warehouses into a public pool and leisure centre, opening in 1991. It's been run as a community enterprise ever since, rather than by the council or a private operator, and has picked up four national awards along the way. Investment hasn't stopped: as of mid-2026, the centre is partway through a refurbishment funded by a £40,000 grant from the FCC Communities Foundation, covering pool equipment and exterior building work.