Progress Blog

Almost there

All the equipment is in and only minor plumbing and the commisioning of equipment left to do ...

 

ALMOST THERE :-)

DSC0774 DSC0775

Roof lettering

Finally we got a long enough dry spell to allow the fabulous Dumfries signwriting squad (Katie and the girls) to finish our roof lettering

 

Looks amazing

DSC0122 DSC0124 DSC0129 DSC0130 1

Let's get STEAMIN'

The steam system install is continuing this week. Really getting there now .. 

All looking very industrial... Could host a steampunk convention with all the knobs valves and coils in the distillery now 😊

LOVE IT

 

 

20240523 175426 v3 20240523 175445 v3 20240523 175502 v4

Equipment all in !!!!

All equipment is now in and in place (well apart from small ancillary things). 

M&E installation is also well underway. 

We should hopefully be functioning by the end of the summer with test runs and recipe/method testing possible 🙂

Wow the day is almost here .. will have been 3 years of setup but well worth the wait

20240424 101757 20240424 140706

New doors and windows...

Another big step forward.

We have now replaced the doors and windows and have taken delivery of a new temporary office

Hopefully be up and working soon 😀

20240408 103355 20240408 1037402

Still install day

Well today saw the arrival of our main still and the start of it's install

 

What a piece of equipment it is... 

20231107 094018 20231107 094038 20231107 134754 20231107 135922

Our Spirit Still is ready 🙂

Our main still has now completed manufacturing at McMillan Briggs in Prestonpans.

We went to visit last week to see it before delivery and we could not be more pleased. What a fabulous bit of engineering.

Cannot wait to put it into action... so excited 😊

20231002 113906

Moving the LPG tank

Today also saw the moving of our LPG tank to a better location for connection to the plant room. 

This has been another thing we have been waiting for somits good to get it ticked off the list . Unfortunately this also meant digging a huge 40m trench for the pipework. I'll have my work cut out next week filling it back in.

20230918 130135

Our Washback arrived today 👍

It's all coming together.

After about 18 months of work we are almost there. Today our washback (from J.B. Vats) arrived all the way from Dufftown in the heart of Speyside. 

Was a tight fit getting it in through the doorway as we only had about 50mm to spare but, with help from McPherson Engineering, in it went!

20230918 130007 20230918 130212 20230918 130731 20230918 131029 20230918 132907

Distillery equipment being installed at last

Today the first of our equipment is being installed. At last 😊

Thankfully the boys from McPherson engineering have all the correct toys for getting our big equipment into our little distillery building ...

20230908 110139 20230908 111143 20230908 113047

Ben Cumhaill gates installed

Today our gates eventually arrived and were installed. 

THEY LOOK FANTASTIC 😊

We still need to give the posts a final paint but will get that done tomorrow

 

 

20230808 171016 20230808 171034

Distillery floor painting

Well this week has been productive...if making my head spin a little.

We are now on final preparations inside the distillery (on the distilling side anyway... The public facing side will be at the same stage this time next year hopefully).

Walls are all limewashed, in the traditional manner, and we are painting the floor with a lovely epoxy paint to seal the concrete and make it pretty 🙂

Almost ready to put equipment in here now !!!

20230806 112721 20230806 152418

Digging a trench

This week we have been getting our services trench dug to deliver our fresh spring water to the distillery building.

 

Won't be long now until we are putting stills in place 😃

20230711 094227

Painting at Ben Cumhaill

Today we starting the painting on the outside of the main distillery building.

Tere is a lot to do but it will look great painted the traditional white/black of buildings in the area.

Hwre's hoping the rain stays off 🙄

20230226 140211 20230226 140234

Landscaping at Ben Cumhaill

The boys from Nith Valley Construction are helping us out with tidying up the front of the distillery today. 

Things are starting to take shape 

20230214 105255 20230214 105336

Ben Cumhaill's new Lauter Tun

Our new 1000 litre Lauter Tun has finished manufacturing. It looks great and should do the job nicely ... cant wait to see it in place

A22104 3 v2 A22104 8 v3

Ceiling finished

We finished the distillery ceiling today.. and gave it a varnish.

Looks MUCH better now ?

 

 

20230207 093250

Distillery reconstruction

Well it's been a long December and January and, while it's been slow on the construction front, things finally feel like they are progressing again.

This week Ian, our joiner, has been helping to put up the new distillery ceiling. After all the months of tearing stuff down it's now great to see some improvements taking place. 

Today's task is to start on anlayer of varnish on the ceiling while we still have the hire of the scissor lift... I can see lots of varnish in our hair after this..?

 

20221205 141259 20230202 094017 20230202 094027 20230202 094044 20230203 154211 20230203 154237 20230203 154312

Restoring original features

Today we have been opening up original door openings that had been bricked up and covered over. 

These openings are gorgeous with original huge sandstone and timber lintels. Look at the depth of the walls .. 

We are having wooden doors made, eventually, to fit the opening to show off the stonework

20221205 141311 20221212 135556

Now ready for our new gates .. Stopping up completed

We just got word today that the stopping up order has came through for the distillery.

 

Basically this means the old public road that dead ends at the Distillery is no longer Public access and we can install our gates.

Another thing ticked off ...

Signed Drg No TM N 01 120

Planning permission granted

At long last planning permission has been granted for the distillery. So onwards and upwards now. A million things left to do but we are getting there. 

 

 

 

group friends toasting glasses whiskey brandy rum indoors closeup 193276493

David Stirk

Met up with David Stirk of Stirk consulting (and the Creative Whisky company) last week. What a lovely guy and well known to all those in the whisky industry. Being a local to us he offered his help if we needed it. What a lovely guy and unbelievable offer given his experience in the field.

Cheers David ?

 

 

stirkBULL op2n4un546sirtur25j42eu2wk31cmrfpeddrgwmui

Great visit to Claxtons' today

Great visit to Claxtons today. https://www.facebook.com/claxtonsspirits

 

They are our local bond and independent bottler as well as producing some fabulous whisky of their own by recasking and/or extra maturing.

 

What a great place it was and look forward to over-running our storage and needed to store our barrels there too ?

 

While leaving we were gifted a bottle of whisky. Can't wait to try it tonight 

 

16632569664908203111921616611104

Entrance gabions completed at last

After two solid weeks of work the gabions are done.

That was hard work but they look great. Now we can give the new gates the go ahead. 

Another job off the list ?

20220903 103406 20220903 103432

More gabions

Half way!!

We finished half of our entrance gabion wall today. That was a full weeks hard work... Look good though. 

Can't wait to see the other side done too

20220819 161033 20220819 161147

Gabion's

We started work on the gabion walls at our entrance gates today. Hot work in 31c temperatures but at least it wasn't raining ?

20220814 104742 v2 20220814 145032

Borehole drilling .. fresh spring water for Bencumhaill Whisky

We have had a new borehole drilled so we can have fresh Dumfries spring water to make our whisky from.

The hole has been drilled down to 99m. Wow ... long way down. 

Today we are doing a supply test and will then do the usual bacterial/chemical analysis.

The well doesn't seem to produce huge amounts of water but enough for our purposes. Fingers crossed :-)

 

DSC00874

Roofing works started

Roofing works started this week ... 

We have replaced the roof on storage building 1 and started repairs to the main distillery building.

Storage building 2 need completely replaced so that will be done early next year hopefully.

It's slow but we are getting there

DSC01262 v2 DSC01265 v2 DSC01269

Mock-up sign for our gates

We got a mock-up of our gate signage this week. It's so nice we painted it and mounted it on a black board for contrast. Looks like it will be an internal feature now ? 

20220614 095810 20220614 095816

Bringing the house down

Now that we have removed all of the old plasterboard, and glass-wool insulation, we have started on the timber frame. 

50% of the ceiling down and will hopefully finish it this weekend leaving only the wall studwork to remove.

After that I'm hoping the work will go into improvement rather than destruction ?

20220611 114321 20220611 114331

Super productive today

Great day today. We starting ripping down the plasterboard ceiling. Hard work but exposed a very good condition roof with lots of original timbers. 

This will look amazing once we are finished.

Check out Jessica's safety goggles ?

20220607 145859 20220607 150157 20220607 150210 20220607 160416

Reinstating the original building walls

Been ripping off plasterboard all day today and exposeling the original walls. Found a couple of old windows and doorways that have been blocked up over the years so may have to reinstate these and make a feature of the gorgeous wooden lintels supporting the openings...

20220605 141310 20220605 144300 20220605 153824 20220605 153831 20220605 155707

The preparation continues

Great progress today. The whole family were busy.

The electrics were isolated and stripped ready for the rewire. 

The walls were stripped of cladding and the rest of the vinyl floor tiles removed. 

The old post office section was completely removed (kept the lovely old safe).

Next thing is to start stripping the plasterboard and returning the building back to it's original stone walls...

20220604 100101 20220604 105248 20220604 142214 20220604 142227 20220604 161631 20220604 161652 20220604 165004

Gabion Stone arrived

Our Gabion stone arrived today from Nith Valley Construction. Can't wait to see it in the actual gabions but that's another job on the list. Will be a slow and steady job for those sunny summer days ?

20220603 105607 20220603 112119 20220603 112204

We have started on the building works

Yesterday we started on ripping up the old vinyl floor tiles. The plan will be to get it back to the concrete floor and then re-screed the floor before painting it. 

Next move will be to remove the plasterboard walls and ceiling to return to the basic building framework. That's gonna be a lot of work ?

20220603 094548 20220603 103834

Work starting on the new look entrance to Ben Cumhaill

Work started on our new entrance this week. Supports for the new gabion wall have gone in and now just need the stone to arrive so we can fill them up ..

 

Our new gates are still being designed ?

20220524 143636 20220524 143700 v2 20220525 132335

Went to Ninefold Rum distillery yesterday

Had a great visit to NinefoldDistillery yesterday. 

What a great place and setup Kit has there for his rum making. 

Thanks to Kit for all his time onsite and, as always, has given us even more to think about.

? I hope to be 50% as organised as he is... ?

Ninefold+1

Great tour of Annandale distillery today

What a great visit to Annandale distillery we had today. The place is gorgeous. Great history, and whisky, and the people could not have been friendlier.

Special thanks to Frederick (our tour guide) and especially to Darren (senior distiller) for all their time and information today. 

Great visit and will definitely be back.

I'm so jealous of the setup they had..but oh well.. we can dream... Just have to make sure I make good whisky, just on a much, smaller scale ?

20220510 113905 20220510 120034 20220510 120036 20220510 120043 20220510 123321

Off to Annandale distillery soon ?

Darren Irving from Annandale distillery dropped by today to introduce himself on behalf of Annandale distillery and to give us a voucher for a free tour.

I can't wait to take them up on their generous offer. They also dropped off a sample of their new make spirit (rascally liquor) and I was MIGHTY impressed by its flavour and smoothness for a completely unaged spirit.

We popped by last week for lunch and their buildings are gorgeous so can't wait to see the insides.

Thanks again to all at Annandale for being so welcoming ... Hopefully we can reciprocate soon ?

279669026 1031055701149268 2449475156247727658 n

Preparation

We are getting there ... Planning is in ... and now we are starting to prepare the building. !st thing was to find and fix a water leak that has been causing issues.

Found and fixed now ? First of many issues. Next is to remove ALL the existing plumbing and electrical wiring and do it properly and safely this time.

On a brighter note we had interest from the local newspaper this week wanting to do an article on the conversion of our old shop/cafe into a distillery. Nice to see we are already getting noticed.

279228869 1024197291835109 4481466308790838574 n 279240616 1024197341835104 2173047084050483840 n

Still ordered!

We have found our still. A 1000litre beauty from Macmillan-Briggs coppersmiths in Prestonpans. The photo isn't of our still but one like it as ours has still to be made.

HUGE investment but since it's the backbone of the whole operation went for the best we could get.

Can't wait to taste what comes out of it now

279032571 1024643655123806 2488139454181886418 n

Starting construction

Now the weather has changed construction is starting on the main building... 1st of all we have to strip out all the old stuff before we can start to shape it the way we want

276142196 1001829260738579 647684508240749158 n 276150411 1001829314071907 5160072007633319460 n

Tree Planting

Today we planted 500 beach trees around the distillery. Not only will this help with our carbon footprint going forward but also makes the place look pretty. Win win ?

275546176 995367094718129 3451085581975327747 n

Visit to the copper fabricators

Had a nice visit to McMillan copper fabricators today to see if they can supply a still. Very taken with a 1000l still that is just a smaller version of the stills used in the big whisky distilleries. They are tall though...circa 4m so need to see if I can take out part of my ceiling to accommodate ?

275427684 994238461497659 3733689123236913341 n 275429668 994238398164332 2642907933455234383 n 275432925 994238304831008 8599234129353721606 n 275437399 994238614830977 6450481367920177429 n 275437482 994238361497669 732425406156068658 n 275438627 994238511497654 1965074852699921590 n

Historic maps

Historic maps showing the distillery building (Holm head area) in late 1700's.

274070434 980987472822758 9028273649336586741 n

We're in!

Well we are in and settled at last.

Lots of work to do before the distillery can be up and running. We have a new roof to put on one outbuilding and another to rebuild completely. And the main building needs a rewire and replumb before we can start installing the distilling equipment.

Lots to do... As you can see half of the main building is being used as storage come art room presently ?

Hopefully lots of updates soon .. presently waiting on quotes for building works, electricity supply upgrades, solar panels

274055103 980959492825556 8632781247129329973 n 274055315 980959456158893 886961197097341470 n 274055342 980959609492211 2798591374443316233 n 274059155 980959656158873 6687788122204089940 n 274059245 980959542825551 9134512169535125645 n 274077615 980959629492209 2870126022403028097 n 274084662 980959562825549 4580129477705047275 n 274085534 980959586158880 5409413444744727957 n