Whisky and Gin Distilleries in Edinburgh: A Complete Guide
Every distillery you can visit in Edinburgh, plus the best day trips. Tours, tastings, prices and how to reach each one, from a hotel in Bruntsfield.
The short answer
Edinburgh has two working single malt distilleries you can walk to — Holyrood and Port of Leith — plus Lind & Lime for gin, and two major whisky visitor attractions in Johnnie Walker Princes Street and The Scotch Whisky Experience. Glenkinchie, the Lowland malt fifteen miles east, is the closest traditional country distillery. Beyond that, Deanston, Tullibardine, Glenturret and Clydeside are all comfortable day trips by train.
If you only have time for one: Holyrood if you want to see spirit actually being made and taste both whisky and gin in the same hour, or Johnnie Walker Princes Street if you want the polished, cinematic version with a rooftop bar at the end of it.
In the city
Holyrood Distillery
Edinburgh's first new single malt distillery in almost a century, in a restored 1830s railway building at the foot of Holyrood Park. When we last wrote about this place it had no whisky of its own — that has changed, and the range now runs alongside their Height of Arrows gin, made with just three botanicals.
The signature tour takes you through both the gin and whisky production floors with tastings as you go, which makes it the most efficient hour in Edinburgh if you want to understand both spirits at once. Longer whisky-led tours go deeper for enthusiasts.
Worth knowing: they run free EH Evenings for anyone with an Edinburgh postcode — a fully guided tour at no cost. If you live here, there is no excuse.
- Signature tour: from around £25, 60–90 minutes
- Address: 19 St Leonard's Lane, EH8 9SH
- Getting there: 25 minutes on foot from The Bruntsfield, or the 41 bus
Port of Leith Distillery
The tallest whisky distillery in the world, and the most architecturally interesting thing built in Edinburgh in a decade. Nine storeys on the Leith waterfront, designed so the process runs downwards by gravity rather than being pumped between floors.
The flagship tour takes ninety minutes and ends with you filling your own miniature bottle of spirit. Then go up to the bar, which has one of the better views in the city and is worth the trip on its own.
They also run a guided walk through Leith that starts at their sister gin distillery, Lind & Lime, and finishes here — a good way to spend a half-day if the weather behaves.
- Tour and tasting: from around £30
- Address: 24 Ocean Way, EH6 6JJ
- Getting there: 30–35 minutes by bus from Bruntsfield, or take the tram to Ocean Terminal
Lind & Lime Gin Distillery
Named after James Lind, the Leith-born naval surgeon who worked out that limes prevented scurvy — which is also, indirectly, why gin and tonic exists. Small, working, in the old Coburg Street area, and genuinely one of the best gin distillery tours in Scotland precisely because it is small.
- Tour and tasting: from around £20
- Getting there: Leith, same trip as Port of Leith — do both
Edinburgh Gin
Edinburgh Gin runs its own distillery experience with tours and tastings.
Johnnie Walker Princes Street
Not a distillery, and it does not pretend to be. Eight floors at the west end of Princes Street telling the story of the world's biggest Scotch blend, with a flavour-profiling tour that matches you to drinks you will actually like, and two rooftop bars looking straight at the castle.
The Journey of Flavour is the standard tour at £30 and includes tastings. It is the most entertaining whisky hour in the city and by far the best option if you are bringing people who do not think they like whisky. Tasting experiences run considerably higher for those who do.
- Journey of Flavour: £30, around 90 minutes
- Address: 145 Princes Street, EH2 4BL
- Getting there: 20 minutes on foot from The Bruntsfield
The Scotch Whisky Experience
Beside the castle at the top of the Royal Mile, and home to the largest collection of Scotch whisky in the world — several thousand bottles. Also not a distillery, but the best possible starting point if you do not yet know a Speyside from an Islay, because it explains the five regions properly before you commit money to a tour.
- Tours: from around £25
- Address: 354 Castlehill, Royal Mile, EH1 2NE
Fifteen miles out
Glenkinchie Distillery
The Edinburgh Malt, in the farmland of East Lothian, and one of Johnnie Walker's Four Corners of Scotland distilleries. This is the closest thing to a Highland distillery experience you can reach from the city in under an hour: stone buildings, two enormous copper pot stills, and a museum of malt whisky production including an illicit still seized in the days when this was a hanging offence.
If you want the traditional version — the one that looks like the photographs — this is the one to book.
- Standard tour: from around £20
- Address: Pencaitland, Tranent, EH34 5ET
- Getting there: around 45 minutes by car. Check current shuttle and tour-bus options when you book [VERIFY]
Worth the day trip
These are all reachable from Edinburgh by train in under two hours, and all are better as a full day out than a rushed morning.
Common questions
Is there a whisky distillery in Edinburgh itself?
Yes — two working single malt distilleries. Holyrood Distillery near Holyrood Park and Port of Leith Distillery on the waterfront both produce spirit on site and both run guided tours. Johnnie Walker Princes Street and The Scotch Whisky Experience are visitor attractions rather than distilleries, but both offer serious tastings.
Where can I do a gin tour in Edinburgh?
Holyrood and Lind & Lime are the two working gin distilleries offering tours in the city. Holyrood covers gin and whisky together in one visit; Lind & Lime in Leith is gin only and pleasingly small-scale. Edinburgh Gin also runs tastings.
How much does a distillery tour in Edinburgh cost?
Roughly £20 to £35 for a standard tour with tastings, with premium and enthusiast-level experiences running from about £45 upwards. Prices at the very top end — rare-cask and food-paired tastings — go into the hundreds. Booking online in advance is usually cheaper and, in summer and August, essential.
Can you visit a distillery in Edinburgh without drinking?
Yes. The production tour is the interesting part regardless, and most distilleries will substitute soft or non-alcoholic samples on request, or let you take your tasting away in a driver's dram to try later. Minimum ages vary between eight and twelve, so check before booking for children.
What is the closest traditional distillery to Edinburgh?
Glenkinchie, about fifteen miles east in East Lothian. It is the closest classic country distillery to the city and the only Lowland malt within easy reach — light, gentle and floral, which is the Lowland house style.
Do I need to book distillery tours in advance?
Yes, especially between June and September. The Edinburgh distilleries sell out their best slots during the festival period and in the run-up to Christmas, and the premium tastings go weeks ahead year-round.
Making a weekend of it
The Bruntsfield sits on Bruntsfield Place looking over Bruntsfield Links, which puts Holyrood a half-hour walk away, Johnnie Walker twenty minutes, and Waverley — for Glenkinchie, Deanston or Clydeside — a short bus ride. The Neighbourhood, our kitchen and bar, keeps a Scotch list of its own, so you can carry on the tasting without going anywhere.
Our bedrooms · Check availability · Short breaks and offers · The Neighbourhood Kitchen & Bar
Read next: The best time to visit Edinburgh: a month-by-month guide · Gin distilleries and tours in Edinburgh · The magnificent seven walks in and around Edinburgh
