Before it became a distillery, Lochlea was a 222-acre cattle farm when the owners acquired it in 2006. Barley had historically been grown on the farm land, largely as livestock feed, so in 2015 they began an experiment, growing 50 acres of malting barley.

The land at Lochlea is important, and not just to the distinctive taste of the whisky. This was the land that Robert Burns tended when he lived at Lochlea Farm, inspiring his thinking and development as a poet. Burns toiled the same soil that they are privileged to grow their malting barley in today.

Working away quietly, exploring the possibilities and making contacts in the malting industry gave them the confidence to make a big decision: to develop and operate a single malt distillery at Lochlea.

Construction got underway in 2017, converting the former piggery, byre and midden in the heart of the farm steading into the distillery, and repurposing the cattle sheds into bonded warehouses. Licences were secured in 2018, and the distillery was commissioned in August 2018.