Based on what you’d read on paper and on screens, the distilleries Knockando
and Knockdhu belong on this ‘K’ page. However, an illiterate Scotsman might
look for those on the ‘N’ page because the K is not pronounced in those names.
(Well - he wouldn’t obviously, but you get my drift.) So, ‘Knockando’ is actually
pronounced as Nokkandoo and ‘Knockdhu’ as Nok Doo.
The ‘Keepers of the Quaich’ make up the friendly face of the SWA.
In Scottish folklore, a kelpie is a water spirit living in a loch or lake.
Kilchoman was founded in 2005 and grew into a booming family business.
The south-eastern shore of Islay is known as Kildalton among locals.
A kilderkin contains 82 litres / 18 gallons and is equal to half a UK barrel.
The brand name ‘Kilkerran’ is used for whisky from Glengyle distillery.
Just like Glen Flagler, Killyloch was a single malt from the Moffat distillery.
The word kiln comes from the Old English ‘cylene’ and the Latin ‘culīna’.
The Kinchie Burn from the Lammermuir Hills is Glenkinchie's water source.
Kinclaith was the last new malt whisky distillery in Glasgow for fifty years.
Production at the Kingsbarns distillery started as recently as January 2015.
The Kingsbury brand is used by Japanese bottler 'Japan Import System'.
Kininvie was little more than a still house in Balvenie’s back yard.
The Knockando distillery was founded in 1898 during a ‘whisky boom’...
... while the nearby Knockdhu distillery was built 5 years earlier in 1893.
The ‘Keepers of the Quaich’ are an exclusive group of
people that have been rewarded for doing good things for
the whisky industry - for example by organising festivals.
The members that I personally know are great people, but
that’s because they’re people, not because they’re keepers.
The organisation has an impressive list of patrons and there
seems to be a lot of ceremony around their banquets.
Their site goes on quite a bit aout “recognising the legacy and
tradition of Scottish history” but I’d say the focus is on business.
The name Kildalton could refer to an area in the
South of Ireland, but most whisky lovers will know
it as the South-Eastern shore of Islay - home to
the Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg distilleries.
As you can see on the satellite picture at the right
The main coastal road that starts at the Port Ellen
harbour will take you along all three distilleries.
The image suggests that the road ends at Ardbeg,
but a smaller path actually goes on to Kintour farm
and the ancient Kildalton Cross - located about 6
kilometres due North-east from Ardbeg.
The kiln used to be a part of every malt whisky distillery in Scotland. This type of oven is used in many
different industries - for example for turning clay into ceramics and bricks. In the beer industry a hop kiln
dries the hops needed for brewing while the whisky industry used them for drying malting / malted barley.
Once a distillery says goodbye to their own maltings they don’t need a kiln anymore either.
If this mythical creature hadn’t featured prominently in an Ardbeg advertising campaign, many non-Scots
might have never heard of ‘kelpies’. In Scottish mythology a kelpie is a water spirit that resides a stream,
loch or pool. Not every Scotsman and woman agrees on how the creature would look and feel exactly,
with depictions ranging from horses and women to mermaids and fairies. Similar creatures can be found
in the mythology and folklore of many other regions and countries as well.
Like the name Kinchie Burn might suggest (at least to malt whisky lovers), the “Kinchie Burn” that flows
through the Lammermuir Hills is the main water source for the Glenkinchie distillery in the Lowlands.
The first plans to turn the Kingsbarns farm into a distillery were conceived, but private capital was only
secured after taxpayers paid for a government grant of £670,000. The private investor was Wemyss Malts.
This Scotch whisky bottler also became a distiller after an investment of £3,000,000. The actual construction
of Kingsbarns distillery began in June 2013 and production of whisky started for real in January 2015.
