History
The start
John Morrison knew opportunity when he saw it. Barley fields behind him, a railway line at his door, and four natural springs running through the Knock Estate. He took the land and built a distillery around it – Knockdhu. The water didn’t need touching, the barley didn’t need hauling far, and the whisky spoke for itself.
We’d say ‘the rest is history’ but it isn’t. Not quite yet.
The hill
The Black Hill – ‘Knockdhu’ in Gaelic – gave our distillery its name. Its springs still feed every mash tun we fill. When it came to the whisky? We called it anCnoc – ‘the hill’. Not the distillery’s name, not the usual way. But then, we’ve never been much for usual.
Hard Cnocs
We’ve taken a few. The whisky kept flowing through the Great Depression. The stills ran while soldiers garrisoned here during World War II. And when a warehouse collapsed under heavy snow, we rebuilt with the stone we had to hand.
The anCnoc Way.
Not the easiest way. Not the fastest. But the only way we know.
Our Whiskies
Small batches. Small range. Our Highland Single Malt Scotch Whisky is always light and fruity. Sometimes with a curl of smoke, sometimes without. Always ready to stand apart.
Archive
Not everything we’ve made is still around. But it’s all part of the story.