A picturesque seaside Highland distillery, Macduff was founded quite recently (by Scottish distillery standards) in the late 1950s by Brodie Hepburn, a Glasgow based whisky broker. Construction was outsourced to William Delme-Evans, the premier distillery architect of the 20^th century who focused on energy conservation before it was a concern of most. Delme-Evans also designed Tullibardine, Jura and the Glenallachie distilleries.

With construction complete in the early 1960s, Macduff concentrated on producing malt for use in the highly popular and profitable blends of the time. Over the years, like many distilleries, it changed hands several times, ultimately falling under the ownership of Bacardi, who owns the brand today.

One quirky fact about Macduff is its still setup. Interestingly there are 5 stills: 2 wash stills and 3 spirit stills. This leaves Macduff and just one other distillery in Scotland, Talisker, with this odd set up. No one is quite sure what the intention of the 5^th still was or if a 6^th was planned but the setup is quite unique for sure. Macduff has a nutty spicy character that is popular in blends and plays well with cask finishings, popular with independent bottlers.

Today, the distillery's distillate still plays a large role in blends such as Wm. Lawson but if you're looking for official distillery releases of Macduff single malt you won't find it - Macduff brands itself as The Deveron (with several distillery age statement releases). When independent bottlers release bottlings from Macduff Distillery, however, they are branded Macduff.