Glen Ord Distillery

In the mid-13th century, the MacKenzies of Ord were granted lands in the west of Scotland by King Alexander III. In 1820, Thomas MacKenzie of Ord inherited the estate embarked on rejuvenating the area. A large portion of MacKenzie's land was devoted to the cultivation of barley, as such he decided to lease the land for a distillery to be built, this would also provide year-round employment for local men. At the time, there were nine small licensed distilleries operating in the area to compete with, the majority of which were being run by ten-twelve of the tenant farmers. The whole of the barley crop was used in the distilleries as it was the fastest way of turning it into funds with which…