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Arran Single Malt is made from Scottish rainwater from Loch na Davie, which nestles in the hills high above our home. This is no coincidence. 

Back in the early 1990s, when our Founder, Hal Currie, set out to build a distillery, he didn’t look for a site near the island’s main port, or a location with river views. He wanted to find the best water source in all of Arran and make our whisky there. 

Informed by irrefutable research from the University of Glasgow’s geology department and the laboratories of Tatlock & Thomson, the decision became abundantly clear: Lochranza Distillery would be built in the foothills near Loch Na Davie—the purest water in all of Scotland.

What makes the water from Loch Na Davie so pure? 

Loch Na Davie is about 1,117 feet above sea level and surrounded by acres of nature in Arran’s mountainous north. 

Perched under the clouds, it catches fresh rainwater as it falls. From there, the water cascades down Easan Biorach Burn through no less than six granite waterfalls. As it washes over the granite, and flows through the hills, it purifies and filters, until it eventually reaches our distillery. 

The result? Pristine water, straight from the source, that’s free from pollutants and enriched by the environment around us. 

How does the water source influence the flavour of the whisky? 

This is a topic of heated debate in the whisky community. Many believe the water source has very little impact on the taste. And it’s a fair point. There are many stages in the whisky-making process that can overshadow the subtleties of water (e.g. the distillation process or the type of cask). 

However, that doesn’t mean the water source contributes nothing to the flavour of the whisky. It contributes far more than many realise. 

“The waters of Loch Na Davie are the true hero of our production process. Not only are they perfect for our light and fruity style of whisky, but the low mineral content also works perfectly for our production, ensuring a clean and smooth process from Loch to bottle.” — Stewart Bowman, our Distillery Manager

Water impacts the wash, the wash impacts the flavour

“Wash” is the liquid we take from the washbacks after the fermentation process. During this process, barley, water and yeast interact to create alcohol (and flavour). But how much of it comes from the water? 

There are certain qualities in water that shape the flavours of the wash, such as hardness and chemical composition. Here, at Lochranza, our water is soft. And it’s all to do with the terroir around us. 

Every drop of our whisky starts as rainwater, and all rainwater is soft. It only becomes hard when it sits for a long time and absorbs other elements from the ground. Loch na Davie disperses down many streams, meaning the rainwater doesn’t stay put for long. Here in the north of Arran, our “highland” landscape is largely made up of granite, schist and gabbro. This means our water doesn’t absorb hard minerals, like those you would find in limestone or chalk. As the water from Loch Na Davie runs down the six granite waterfalls towards our distillery, it only gets softer. 

So what does this have to do with flavour? The chemical levels in soft water often induce faster fermentation, speeding up the growth of flavour-enhancing compounds like lactobacillus. This microscopic bacterial strain is what’s responsible for that rich, fruity character that Arran Single Malt is known and loved for. 

If we used artificially-filtered water, or we didn’t live on Arran, our wash (and ultimately, our whisky) would taste significantly different. 

“The acknowledged excellence of the Arran whisky is attributed to the peculiar and admirable quality of the water” –The Scotsman, 1838

The history of whisky on Arran, and the reputation of the island’s water, long precedes our existence as a distillery. Hundreds of years ago, independent distillers (both legal and illicit) used the same water source we use today. As one of just two distilleries on all of Arran (the other being, Lagg, our sister distillery in the south of the island) we are the only distillery in the world to make its whisky with water from Loch na Davie—a privilege that never is, and never will be lost on us. 

It would be a crime to taint Scotland’s purest water. That’s why we only add Scottish barley and yeast. No chill filtering. No added colours. Just Arran Single Malt, made the traditional way.