2016-04-17 (Day 108) Rosebank Distillery

This is shot from Lock Sixteen of the Forth and Clyde Canal, looking approximately north-west towards the town centre of Falkirk.

Apart from the locks, the deominant feature is obviously the wonderful old brick chimney. This chimney belongs to a disused building, and if I read my history aright, that building is the Falkirk Rosebank distillery.

According to its wikipedia entry, the distillery can trace its history back to around 1840, when one James Rankine leased land from a previously-existing distillery and set up the Rosebank distillery. This grew quickly, and soon was able to purchase the original distillery from which Rankine had bought the land. The Rosebank continued successfully for many years, being acquired by various other companies as time passed, but it was closed in 1993 - the costs of bringing it up to required environmental standards being too great to make the operation viable.

A company has been formed to create a new Falkirk Distillery; building work has started but appears to be progressing very slowly. Whether this new distillery will revive the name of Rosebank Whisky is hard to say. The original buildings are also up for sale, they have lain pretty much empty since the 1990s.