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Talisker opens to visitors after £1m revamp

Talisker Distillery on the Isle of Skye has opened its spectacular new visitor centre following a £1 million redevelopment.

Distillery manager Mark Lochhead officially opened the new centre in time for the Easter tourist season following a major revamp and expansion of the distillery’s visitor facilities.

Talisker is the only distillery on Skye and is a leading tourist attraction on the island, welcoming almost 60,000 visitors last year. The major investment has significantly extended the visitor centre and dramatically enhanced the offering for visitors to the iconic distillery.

Mark Lochhead said: “We are absolutely delighted with the investment we have made here at Talisker and with the new facilities we have created. Talisker is going from strength to strength as a brand and the distillery is growing in popularity with people coming from all over the world to visit the home of our iconic single malt.

“The new visitor centre gives us a wonderful stage to tell the story of Talisker with its rich history and heritage and also to give our visitors a really high quality experience which matches the unique whisky we make here.

“We are also delighted for the local economy here on Skye. This investment has seen a significant number of contractors staying in the area benefiting local businesses and the increasing tourism will also have a great knock-on effect for local businesses.”

The investment has seen the creation of a new welcome area for visitors and a spectacular enhanced viewing gallery in one of the distillery warehouses. New tasting rooms have also been created in which visitors can savour Talisker in surroundings that reflect the heritage and provenance of the whisky.

Diageo operates 28 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland, more than any other company, and with 12 of these having dedicated visitor centres it is also the leading provider of whisky tourism facilities, welcoming over 270,000 visitors last year. These include the homes of some of Diageo’s Scotch whisky brands such as Glenkinchie, Oban, Lagavulin, Dalwhinnie, Royal Lochnagar and Cardhu.

Talisker is Diageo’s busiest distillery visitor centre welcoming 59,767 people in 2012- up by more than 10% from 54,303 in 2011.

Talisker is also one of Diageo’s leading malt whiskies in terms of sales performance, delivering net sales growth of 20% in the company’s recent half year results.