Cottage, Royal Lochnagar Distillery

This is a group of distinctive buildings forming a purpose-built distillery, dating from 1845, with later 19th and 20th century alterations. The complex includes a manager's house to the northeast, a visitors’ centre, office buildings, and ancillary structures. The buildings are constructed of coursed grey granite rubble, with some grey and pink granite used in the manager’s house. The four-storey, double-pile former maltings building, now used as a warehouse, has regularly spaced small shuttered or hoist door openings. The U-plan steading, now the visitors’ centre, features seven former cart arches to the east, bracketed by advanced blank gable ends to the north and south, now with boarded two-leaf timber doors. A pyramid roofed mash house is also part of the complex, as are single-story office buildings to the north, including a three-bay cottage. A tall brick chimney stands to the south.

Fenestration is varied, but predominantly features timber surrounds. Grey slate roofs cover the buildings, with some gable stacks and purple slates on the manager’s house. Brown painted iron rainwater goods are visible, along with white-painted rainwater goods on the manager’s house.

The interiors have been extensively modernised, but retain an old, open top mash tun with rakes, and rows of iron columns from the former maltings.

The manager’s house is a two-story, three-bay building with a timber gabled porch. The ancillary structure is a single-story outhouse with a granite rubble exterior, featuring an eight-pane timber casement window and timber door.

The distillery, which has been in operation since 1845, was built after a previous distillery on the site was destroyed by fire in 1841. John Begg was granted a lease to build the replacement distillery, and it was later visited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1848, leading to a Royal Warrant and the adoption of the Royal Lochnagar brand name. Substantial but sensitive alterations were undertaken in the late 20th century to accommodate visitors and allow for modern distilling practices. The buildings represent a good example of a mid 19th century distillery complex still in use and located within the Cairngorms National Park.