The award-winning Isle of Arran Distillery visitor centre at Lochranza welcomed a record number of visitors last year. 104,000 people made the journey to find ‘the Arran Waters’ in 2016 – a 93% increase since 2012, and 18% increase on 2015.

Euan Mitchell, managing director of Isle of Arran Distillery, said: “The visitor centre has always been core to the distillery. As the first distillery in over 150 years to operate on an island once scattered with illegal stills, we understand and celebrate our place in Arran’s whisky making history.

“These visitor numbers are a reflection of of success in translating this heritage into a world-class visitor experience.”

Lochranza recently reopened after a £1 million investment into rennovations to both the visitor centre and distillery including the replacement of two original stills and two additional stills.

The four brand new stills and a new spirit safe will support the production of 1.2 million litres of alcohol, up from a previous 750 litres.

In the visitor centre, a complete re-design of the reception area includes a modern water feature to replace the original waterfall and a new interactive wall display. The old spirit safe, which was removed during the upgrade of distillery equipment, is exhibited in the main entrance.

A new tasting bar accommodates larger groups of visitors and provides extra space for the increasingly popular tours. Lochranza has recently received an Award of Excellence from the Irish coach tour operator, CIE Tours based on customer feedback.

James MacTaggart, master distiller at the Isle of Arran Distillery said: “After our 21st anniversary celebrations last year, it was important to us to look to the future.

“Our stills had served us well, though, with demand for our whisky constantly growing, we needed to increase capacity.

“The new stills and, crucially, spirit safe, will allow us to sustain production of our core range and give me the chance to create more of our much-loved limited edition bottlings.”

The distillery is also making a large investment in the south of the island with a new distillery site and visitor centre at Lagg. Total visitor numbers to both sites are expected to exceed 200,000 by 2020 once the new visitor centre in Lagg has been opened with an estimated combined turnover of over £2million.

MacTaggart added: “With the new distillery at Lagg, and continued investment at Lochranza, we intend to uphold the rich heritage of whisky making on Arran as we increase production of the Arran Malt.”