Our beloved Bunnahabhain — which means ‘mouth of the river’ in Gaelic, as it stands at the mouth of the Margadale Spring on the shores of the Sound of Islay — first came into existence in 1883. However its origins can be traced back four years earlier when, in 1879, William Robertson of Robertson and Baxter Blending House, joined with the Greenlees Brothers to create the Islay Distillery Company. And so, with the distillery built on a site close to the Margadale River, in 1883 Bunnahabhain was borne.

In the early years, our distillery relied upon the sea trade. Armed only with a small village, a pier and lots of whisky making know-how, our forefathers received supplies by boat and sent adventuring seafarers  back to the mainland along the Sound of Islay with casks of the ‘good stuff’.  It’s this daring spirit and coastal living which has made Bunnahabhain what it is today, and which continues to play an important role in the production of the ever increasing range of Bunnahabhain Single Malts.