Caithness Spirit: Martin Murray, Dunnet Bay Distillers

Описание: The quickest way to get to Dunnet Bay Distillery by road from almost anywhere in Scotland is to take the A9 north almost as far as it can go.

Just before Thurso, hang a right east bound onto the A836, follow the road and you can't go wrong. The disitillery's housed in a rennovated 19th century mill built out of Caithness stone - the same stone that was used to refurbish Boston Harbour on the other side of the Atlantic.

But beware.

If you miss the distillery, you'll very quickly find yourself heading south again, almost the way you came.

That's because Dunnet Bay is almost as far north as you can get on mainland Britain. Just a little bit past the distillery, there's a left turn that will take you to Dunnet Head the real northernmost part of Britain.

The disitillery is the brainchild of Martin and Claire Murray, Caithness locals who, after years away in Aberdeen, the south of France and west Africa, had a "real yearning to come home."

Martin was an engineer who'd worked for Total and BP in the oil and gas industry. But that yearning for home kept calling. "So," Martin says, "whilst I was working with BP, we set up a gin distillery. The goal at the time back then was to get enough money to pay our bills so that we could move home and bring our kids up in an area that we were brought up and that we loved.

"So really our goal was to create two jobs. One for me. And one for my wife Claire."

That was back in 2013. Though the dream had begun in 2008 when Martin looked at buying the old Castletown Mill, built in 1818, and turning it into a whisky distillery.

"But I couldn't do it," he says. "We were the classic case of no experience, no qualifications, and not enough money."

Six years later the Murrays launched Rock Rose Gin which Martin says, "just flew out the door. We sold our first year's production in 12 weeks. And we were up to 110,000 bottles within five years.

"Then we got the option in 2020 to buy an old mill, the mill I talked about in 2008. And at that point we had the skills, experience and qualifications to do it. So we took it on.

"I had an agreement with Claire, where at any point during the project she asked me to walk away, I would. We decided that we would just take it by milestones. So the agreement was, okay, let's try and get planning permission and walk away at that point. We can walk away with our heads held high because we've done something that nobody else has done before.

"Then it was, can we get a building mooring [ie special permission from the Crown Estate in Scotland]? And then can we get the site structure and services in place? So we did that. We went through all the milestones and then the last one was: do we want to build it?

"And that was actually the easiest one because we'd done all the other milestones. And we started on site with the main project in January [2024]. And we've taken a 200 year old mill that was totally knackered and now we've opened a restaurant a month ago [November 2025]. We've opened our shop. And it's quite incredible. You know it's just an awesome place to come back to life."

But whisky's a long term venture and Martin and Claire are just starting out on their next milestone.

It will be called Stannergill Whisky, from the old Norse for "stone valley."

It's a long way off yet. But the last mile is always the farthest.

Join Martin as he tells John about his milestones along the road to whisky production. They've taken him from oil to gin to vodka to rum and a restaurant.

So here's to Martin and Claire Murray's Caithness spirit...

Slàinte!
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Socials: @C2GWhisky | @JohnRossBeattie

Creator & producer: David Holmes
Art work & design: Jess Robertson

Music: Water of Life (Never Going Home)
Vocals: Andrea Cunningham
Guitars: John Beattie
Bass: Alasdair Vann
Drums: Alan Hamilton
Bagpipes: Calum McColl
Accordion: Gary Innes
Music & Lyrics: Andrea Cunningham & John Beattie
Recorded & mixed by Murray Collier at La Chunky Studios, Glasgow, Scotland

Special thanks: The Piper Whisky Bar, 57 Cochrane Street, Glasgow, Scotland

#whisky #podcast #entrepreneurship #scotland #northcoast500 #whiskey #inspiration #business #inspirational