Landmark at Fife distillery as first cask is filled on site, with news on new visitor centre

Eden Mill’s first cask – a Scottish Oak cask – was filled on Monday, a landmark moment for the St Andrews company which marked the end of 21 months of building work following the handover from the University of St Andrews in June 2023.

Eden Mill was established in 2012 on the banks of the Eden Estuary, and was the first distillery to make spirits in the region in over 150 years. Its space holds a mash tun, six washbacks, a gin still, wash and spirit stills, hot liquor tanks and a cask warehouse with space to store 300 casks.

The state-of-the-art distillery has a capacity of one million litres of pure alcohol (LPA) per year and is a fantastic addition to the vibrant distilling scene that already exists within the region of Fife.

With just under 400 casks remaining from the single malt distilled at their original distillery located on the same site, Eden Mill is now turning its attention to restarting whisky production with a view to filling hundreds more casks with their new-make spirit, ready to be laid down to mature.

Its core gin range, comprised of Golf, Love and Original Gin, will also be distilled at their new premises and will soon be relaunched in a redesigned bottle for a more sophisticated and stand-out look.

Located just ten minutes from St Andrews town centre on the University of St Andrews ‘Eden Campus’, Eden Mill will open a world-class visitor centre to tourists which will offer immersive gin and whisky experiences, a retail space and a top-floor cocktail bar featuring views over the estuary. The work on the centre is expected to complete this summer, with a planned opening date of August.

Rennie Donaldson, chief executive officer, said: “The new distillery marks a step change for our business and follows years of hard work by the whole team. To be able to announce that our new distillery is now fully operational is incredibly exciting and we are just a few short months away from being able to open our doors to the public and welcome visitors from all over the world.”

Scott Ferguson, head distiller, added: “Following the installation of our copper stills in January, we have been progressing towards getting the distillery operational and refining our new-make spirit. My objective is to replicate the profile of what we used to distil at our original site – a light, sweet spirit with floral and grassy notes. I am looking forward to coming to work at this beautiful location every day and to overseeing the distillation of our excellent products.”

All electricity at Eden Mill’s distillery will be 100% renewable, coming from either the solar farm belonging to the University of St Andrews or from renewable tariffs on the grid. The business is working on various other sustainability initiatives, including their partnership with MiAlgae which was announced in October 2024.