Malting and distilling buildings, Dallas Dhu Distillery

Dallas Dhu Distillery, Mannachie Road, Forres

Dallas Dhu is a remarkably complete whisky distillery complex built in 1898–1901 to designs by the architect Charles Chree Doig (1855–1918). Originally called Dallasmore, it was funded by the entrepreneur and distillery owner Alexander Edward and was one of two distilleries built on his Sanquhar estate. Before production began, the distillery was sold in 1899 to Wright & Greig Ltd, a Glasgow blending company, who bought it to secure a supply of malt whisky for their popular blend "Roderick Dhu" — named after a character in Sir Walter Scott's novel The Lady of the Lake. Production began on 29 May 1899 and the first barrel was filled on 3 June of that year. The distillery closed in 1983 and has operated as a visitor attraction since passing into the guardianship of Scottish Ministers.

The complex sits on the southern edge of Forres, in a hollow close to the river Dullan, surrounded by farmland and with a forest to the west. When approached from the south it reads as a distinctive industrial building set against open farm fields. The brick stack and pagoda roof are visible when approaching from the north, though the complex is otherwise largely screened by trees and neighbouring farm buildings.

Layout and External Appearance

The principal malting and distilling factory is a single- and two-storey building on an E-plan, arranged east of centre on the site. It comprises, running logically through the whisky-making process from south to north, a malt barn, kiln, mash house, tun room, still house, and filling store with offices. To the west stands a single- and two-storey range of bonded warehouses. Further to the west are two pairs of single-storey-and-attic former distillery workers' cottages. Between the malting and distilling factory and the warehouse range is a single-storey wooden storage shed with a corrugated metal roof.

Most of the distillery buildings are constructed in harl-pointed rubble with tooled ashlar dressings, and most exterior walls are painted. Roofs are pitched and slated with straight stone skews. The kiln has a distinctive ogee-shaped slated roof topped by a pagoda-louvered apex vent — an invention patented by Doig in 1889, first used at Dailuaine Distillery Maltings, and now the most characteristic single feature of Scottish distilleries. Doig designed it in the golden ratio, making it both highly practical and visually pleasing. Adjoining the north of the still house is a tall, tapered, square-plan chimney built in red brick with contrasting yellow brick quoins. The chimney has been reduced in height by 7 metres since closure; a photograph from 1974 shows it originally had three polychrome brick diamonds, and it now retains one.

The south elevation of the malt barn is symmetrical and twelve bays long. The attic windows are smaller and square. In the north gable of the malt barn there is a double door opening above ground level and a further one at attic floor level.

The bonded warehouses form a range of five units whose east and west walls present continuous gable ends. The warehouses are mainly single storey, and each gable has three openings, except the easternmost block which is two storeys and has six openings. This two-storey warehouse is likely to be the one built around 1925 during the period of ownership by Benmore Distilleries Ltd. Running along most of the length of the north side of the warehouses is a pair of iron barrel rails, with a further short section of rails leading to an opening in the west elevation of the warehouse, in front of which is a barrel hoist.

Interior

Inspected in 2019, the interior retains many of its traditional whisky distilling fixtures and fittings. The barley loft — the attic floor of the malt barn — contains two large metal tanks known as steeps. Part of the malting floor (the ground floor of the malt barn) is in use as a shop and offices, with some later and reversible subdivision. The ground floor of the malt kiln retains the kiln fire. The main distillery equipment — the two large copper stills in the still house, the metal mash tun in the mash house, and the six large wooden wash backs in the tun room — were replaced at various points between 1937 and 1969. The replacement of distillery equipment is not unusual in an operational distillery, as items wear out and require renewal over time. Doig's original drawings show the distillery was designed with four wash backs; there are now six, indicating that the tun room has been extended.

Historical Development

The sites for Alexander Edward's two distilleries were chosen primarily for their proximity to the Inverness–Perth Junction Railway rather than for a reliable water supply. Dallas Dhu drew water from the Altyre Burn, approximately a quarter of a mile to the south, with additional cooling water from the Blair Burn. The site was also well placed to take advantage of the high-quality barley-growing land of the Laich of Moray. The hollow in which the distillery sits was advantageous because the water supply arrived under pressure, but the ground was boggy and required stabilisation. The walls of the malt barn began to sink after construction and had to be strengthened by ties, which remain visible on the exterior of the building today. The warehouses, also designed by Doig, were added in 1901 according to the Dictionary of Scottish Architects, and the second edition Ordnance Survey map shows the footprint of four ranges of single-storey warehouses.

The distillery changed hands several times and temporarily ceased production during the First and Second World Wars and during the economic depression of the early 1930s. Benmore Distilleries Ltd, who owned the site between 1921 and 1928, invested heavily in the distillery, introducing electric lighting, conveyor belts and hoists, and constructing a railway siding off the adjacent Highland Railway line. Scottish Malt Distillers (a subsidiary of the Distillers' Company Ltd) took ownership in 1930. From 1936 until closure in 1983 the equipment was continually repaired or upgraded: new wash backs and worm tubs were installed in 1937; electric-powered pumps and conveyors replaced steam engines and waterwheels in 1950; and two new wash backs, a new mash tun and a new boiler were added in 1964 to increase capacity. The stills were replaced in 1968–69.

In 1939 a fire broke out in the still house. Newspaper accounts describe a four-hour blaze causing between £7,000 and £10,000 worth of damage to plant and buildings. The fire was contained to the still house and did not spread to the mash house or spirit store. The equipment was largely destroyed, but the extent of structural damage is not fully known. It is probable that the roof was replaced, though it maintains the appearance shown in Doig's drawings, including the ridge windows and row of lights in the west pitch. Openings in the north wall of the still house were altered: single window openings at ground and first floor level to the left of the arched opening have been blocked, and a tall, flat-arched opening has been added.

In 1963 the adjacent railway line closed and an elevator was installed in the malt barn to handle loose bulk barley delivered by lorry. The distillery became economically uncompetitive with Scottish Malt Distillers' other sites, partly because the malt barn became redundant when a larger maltings opened at Burghead, and partly because of an unreliable water supply. The last barrel of whisky was filled on 16 March 1983. The distillery was transferred to Scottish Ministers in 1987 and sold to a private owner in 1997, though it remained under the guardianship of Scottish Ministers. Since closure to commercial production the buildings have been repaired and maintained without significant alteration. The external stair to the barley loft has been rebuilt to provide safer visitor access, and the tun room roof has been replaced with corrugated sheeting supported on braced metal rafters; a drawing held by Moray Archives indicates this reroofing took place in 1980.

Significance

Dallas Dhu is one of the most complete surviving examples of a traditional late 19th-century Scottish malt whisky distillery. It was built towards the end of a remarkable boom period: between 1894 and 1899 around twenty new distilleries were constructed in Moray and Banffshire to meet rising demand, but the buildings of most of those still in operation have since been significantly remodelled or rebuilt. The distilleries of this period that remain largely unaltered — including Parkmore (Category B) and Coleburn (Category B) — have generally ceased production. Dallas Dhu retains all of its original buildings necessary to the distilling process, arranged in a logical and efficient sequence characteristic of Doig's design philosophy. The survival of the distillery buildings together with the workers' housing clearly illustrates how the whole site functioned from the late 19th century. The immediate setting is also largely unaltered, including the embankment of the former Inverness–Perth Junction Railway to the east of the site and fragments of the distillery's own railway sidings beside the mash house — physical reminders of the transport infrastructure that was essential to distillery operation in this period.

The toilet block is excluded from the listing in accordance with Section 1(4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.