Whisky Guide > Distillery Profiles > Longmorn Distillery

Longmorn Distillery

The Longmorn Distillery stands by the road from Elgin to Rothes. It produces a single malt Scotch whisky with a mellow and complex character which has has made it a firm favourite with connoisseurs of single malts.

The Place

Mo-ernin-og, or Maernanog, was one of the missionaries who brought Christianity to the Picts of Moray. After his death in 625 AD, the feast day of St Marnan or Marnoch was celebrated in many Scottish towns. A small church, built about three miles outside Elgin, was dedicated to the saint and was known as Lann Marnoch - the church of St Marnoch. Over the centuries, the name evolved and was Anglicised to become Longmorn.

The Founder

The founder of Longmorn Distillery was John Duff, one of the great personalities of the Victorian whisky industry. Duff was born in Aberchirder in Banffshire, in 1842, and for many years he was the manager of the Glendronach Distillery near Huntly. He left to become a hotelier, but distilling was in his blood and he became involved in schemes to turn his talents as a whisky maker to profitable account. In 1876 Duff and two partners formed John Duff & Co, and Duff himself took responsibility for the design and management of the new distillery they built at Glenlossie, near Elgin. The distillery was a great success, but he became restless running the distillery and farm there.

In 1888, Duff took his wife and three daughters to Cape Town, where his brother worked as a government official. He invested heavily in a scheme to open a distillery in the Transvaal, but his plans were apparently foiled by President Paulus Kruger, who was notoriously hostile towards commercial adventurers from Britain. Duff left for the USA, where his attempts to open a distillery were equally unsuccessful, and he returned to Scotland with his family in 1892.

For two years, John Duff managed the Bon Accord Distillery in Aberdeen, and he also went into partnership as a wine and spirit merchant, trading as Douglas, Gordon & Co. Keenly aware of a boom in the market for Scotch whisky, he prepared to launch yet another distillery venture.

The Distillery

In 1893, John Duff joined with Charles Shirres and George Thomson to form the Longmorn Distillery Company. They leased some land at Longmorn farm, and Duff took charge of the construction and fitting out of the new distillery. The cost of building Longmorn amounted to £20,000.

Longmorn took its water from local springs and its barley from farms in the fertile Laich of Moray. Ample supplies of peat for the kilns were obtained from the nearby Mannoch Hill, and the motive power for the distillery was provided entirely by a large water wheel. The Great North of Scotland Railway Company's Longmorn Station was connected by a branch line and sidings, to facilitate the shipment of whisky to customers, and the delivery of barley, coal and other materials to the distillery.

Longmorn's four stills began working in December 1894. Soon, Longmorn malt whisky was selling in the trade for 3s 8d [less than 18p] per gallon, and it quickly acquired a good reputation among blenders for its quality and taste: indeed, according to The National Guardian in 1897, it "jumped into favour with buyers from the earliest day on which it was offered."

Hard Times...

In 1897, Duff invested £16,000 in building a second distillery, Benriach, next to Longmorn. At the end of the year he bought out his remaining partner, and floated the business as The Longmorn Distilleries Ltd. He was highly praised for the enormous energy he displayed in running his businesses, but disaster struck in 1898. A recession in the whisky market, precipitated by the failure of the leading whisky blenders and fraudsters, Pattisons Ltd, ruined Duff. With much of his capital tied up in old whisky stocks, his wine and spirit business failed. He was forced to hand over most of distillery company shares as security to the bank, and control of the Longmorn Distilleries Company Ltd passed into the hands of some of his customers, including Thomas Dewar and Arthur Sanderson. After embarking on a number of other business ventures, Duff was declared bankrupt in 1909.

Good Times...

A variety of firms and individuals connected with the industry retained an interest in Longmorn, but there was a particularly strong connection with Hill, Thomson & Co Ltd (which used Longmorn as "top dressing" in its popular Queen Anne and the deluxe Something Special blends), and with the manager James Grant and his sons. The famous "Longmorn Grants" remained at the helm until 1970, when the company joined with The Glenlivet and Glen Grant Distilleries Ltd and Hill, Thomson & Co Ltd to form The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd. The new company brought much-needed investment in expansion at Longmorn. Two stills were added in 1972, and two more in 1974, prompted by the high level of demand for Longmorn as the "top dressing" in many of Scotland's best blended whiskies. In 1978 The Glenlivet Distillers Ltd became Chivas Brothers, one of the Seagram family of companies. In 2001 Chivas Brothers were acquired by the Pernod Ricard Group.

The Whisky

Longmorn has been described as "Speyside's best-kept secret" - prized by blenders and savoured by connoisseurs, but not widely available to the general public as a bottled single malt. As the distillery enters its second century, however, the secret is out - in 1994, a fifteen year old Longmorn in a freshly designed bottle and packaging was launched as one of the four single malt Scotch whiskies relaunched by Seagram as the Heritage Selection.

The Awards

In 1994, Longmorn received a Gold Medal at the International Wine & Spirits Awards ceremony in the Guildhall, matching its success in 1993.

Iain Russell
Mar 1998
(Aug 2002)