Holyrood Arrival First Release 2023

The Holyrood distillery was founded at the foot of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh’s Old Town in 2019 and released its first Holyrood Lowland single malt whisky late in 2023. The distillery takes brewing very seriously, using traditional and heritage barley and yeast strains with a modern mindset, while experimenting with new strains and differing fermentation times.

As of early 2025, Holyrood's distillery capacity was listed around 250000 litres per annum - around half the size of, say, Royal Lochnagar or Springbank - but this will soon increase, as in 2024 the company won funding for a distillery expansion. Holyrood also produces barley-based vodka and gins, and bottles single cask rums sourced from around the world and finished in various high quality wine and sherry casks.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.