Cragmòr

The Cragmòr Credo

Not distilled.
Extracted.

The Peat

Our peat was living matter 10,000 years before the first barrel was laid. When we burn it, we do not add flavour — we summon it. Smoke is memory made material.

The Stone

Our bonded warehouses rest upon bedrock laid in the Devonian period. The cask does not merely age here — it breathes in synchrony with the crag above it. Stone is patient. We learn from it.

III

The Interval

Nothing of worth is rushed. Our youngest expression rests for 21 years. Our oldest, 40. We do not chase trends — we outlast them. The only timeline that matters is the one inside the cask.

The Expressions

Cragmòr Single Malt

Private Cask Programme →

21 Year Old

The Foundling

Sherried European oak · 46% ABV

First-Fill Oloroso Sherry

46%

Dark chocolate, dried fig, leather, a breath of sea air finishing long and peated.

25 Year Old

The Crag

Virgin American oak · 48.6% ABV

Virgin American White Oak

48.6%

Vanilla pod, toasted coconut, warm heather honey, deep smoke rising on the finish.

30 Year Old

The Peat Father

Refill hogshead · 56.2% cask strength

Refill Scottish Hogshead

56.2%

Iodine, brine, smoked almonds. A peat so dense it could be misread for ancient stone.

Solera Reserve

The Extraction

Continuous vatting since 1960 · 43% ABV

Multi-Generation Solera

43%

Every decade in one glass. Candied orange, teak, distant bonfire, an eternal exhale.

Limited — 40 Year Old

The Stone Archive

Single cask · 342 bottles · 42.8% ABV

Single Refill Butt · Cask #112

42.8%

Antique mahogany, wax, autumnal funghi, and a smoke that drifts rather than announces itself.

Private Commission

Your Cask

Select cask type · minimum 10 years

Bespoke Cask Programme

TBD

The only whisky in the world that belongs entirely to you — filled, sealed, and laid in stone on your behalf.

Copper & Stone

Built in 1893.
Unchanged by design.

Our pot stills have been cast from the same Cornish copper for five generations. The necks were shaped by William Macrae, master coppersmith, in 1893. We have never replaced their geometry — only honoured it.

The distillery sits at 340 metres above sea level on the Caithness plateau. The air here is cold, the water from the Braeswick burn passes through granite and peat for eleven miles before reaching our mash tun.

"The building does not merely house the process. The building is the process."

Altitude

340 m ASL

Water Source

Braeswick Burn

Wash Stills

2 × 12,000L

Spirit Stills

2 × 8,000L

Plan a Visit

Extraction Method

Six Acts of Transformation

Act I

Malting

Caithness barley is hand-turned on our traditional floor maltings for six days. On the seventh, it meets the peat fire — 10,000-year-old fuel that imprints its geological memory into every grain before drying is complete.

Act II

Mashing

The malted grain is milled and infused with Braeswick water at three rising temperatures. The resulting wort carries the mineral signature of eleven miles of granite and living peat — a flavour no chemistry can replicate.

Act III

Fermentation

Slow fermentation in Oregon pine washbacks for 90 hours — far beyond the industry standard of 60. This extended interval builds the esters that become tomorrow's complexity. We are in no hurry.

Act IV

Distillation

Two distillations through our 1893 Cornish copper pot stills. The spirit cut is taken narrower than anywhere in Scotland — our stillmen discard the first 40 minutes of spirit and stop before the tails begin. Only the heart.

Act V

Maturation

Casks are filled at 63.5% and laid in our Devonian-bedrock warehouses. The breathing of Caithness — its humidity cycles, its cold, its mineral air — seeps through the cask wood for a minimum of 21 years before any discussion of bottling begins.

Act VI

Bottling

Non-chill filtered. Natural colour. Each bottle is numbered by hand and sealed with wax drawn from the same formula used since 1927. The cork is compressed Scottish oak. Nothing decorative; everything intentional.

The Lineage

Five Generations, One Method

1893

The Foundation

Alistair Macrae lays the first stone of the distillery on a peat bog above the Braeswick burn. The copper stills arrive from Truro six months later.

1921

The Silence

Production halts for the Prohibition era. The Macrae family seal 240 casks in the lower bonded warehouse. They do not open them until 1934.

1960

The Solera

James Macrae III initiates the continuous solera vatting system — a single vessel fed and partially drawn from every year since. It is never emptied.

1993

The Centenary

The first public release of a 21-year-old expression. Whisky Magazine declares it "the most consequential debut of the decade." 1,893 bottles worldwide.

2024

The Programme

The Private Cask Programme opens to a limited circle. Owners select grain lot, cask type, and retrieval year. Their name is painted on the stone above.

Critical Recognition

The World's Verdict

There is smoke here, yes — but smoke as the Highland ancients understood it. Not flavour. Atmosphere. Cragmòr does not make whisky. It excavates time.

Whisky Advocate — 97/100

Best Single Malt — World Whisky Awards 2023

The 30 Year Old Peat Father is the most geologically convincing whisky I have ever tasted. One sip and you understand that this spirit did not originate in a still. It originated in the earth.

Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2024 — 96.5 Points

Liquid Gold — Extraordinary

The Extraction Solera is a paradox: simultaneously the oldest whisky in Scotland and one you have never tasted before. Each bottle carries every year since 1960 in its arithmetic.

The Spirits Business — Platinum Award

Heritage Distillery of the Year — 2024

Private Cask Programme

Reserve Your Cask.
Claim Your Stone.

The ultimate act of patience: a cask filled with Cragmòr new make spirit, laid in our warehouse, and inscribed with your name on the stone above it. You select the grain lot, the cask wood, the resting duration. We do the rest. In a decade or four, you open it.

Annual progress reports with hydrometer readings and predicted tasting profile evolution

Unlimited private distillery visits during the maturation period

Custom label design with heraldic commission available

Certificate of ownership, transferable to beneficiaries

Not distilled.Extracted.