How Heaval Distillery is crafting a sustainable future and empowering a remote community in Scotland
Plunkett recently awarded a small development grant from the Scottish Rural Network to Uisge Beatha Nan Eilean Limited (Heaval Distillery) on the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. Its community whisky distillery project is currently in the development phase and actively seeking funding. We caught up with Peter Brown, one of the founding members.
Uisge Beatha Nan Eilean Limited is a Community Benefit Society. Peter explained the importance of this structure:
“We knew from seeing it happen elsewhere in Scotland that once a business develops a fantastic product like exceptional whisky, larger companies can come in, buy it out, and move the jobs and wealth away from the local community. We are very clear that our whisky will be entirely locally distilled, bottled, and sold. The way to protect that is for the distillery to be community-owned. It will not be vulnerable to being taken over.”
The group owns not just the land where the distillery will be constructed, but also the dam and water source that will be used to make the whisky, as well as the necessary wayleaves and two wind turbines to provide power.
“We plan to install hydro turbines in the burn and a solar power array too; this will give us extensive protection from fossil fuel price increases – we want it to be the most environmentally sustainable distillery in the country,” says Peter.
Eventually, the aim is to use crofting to grow the heritage strains of barley that will be used on the island; an ambitious and long-term vision.
The community benefits of the project are potentially very significant to this small, remote community.
“Household income on Barra is among the lowest in the country; that’s just the nature of life here. We think the distillery will create 8-10 jobs: that’s huge when you have a population of just 1,200. But it’s more than jobs; it’s community capacity in terms of training, skills, and knowledge that will be embedded in Barra’s community. Younger people will learn and do, and pass on the specialist knowledge to future generations. We’ll be creating community resilience and expertise.”
“Ultimately, the extremely high-quality, small-batch whisky we will be producing, and the community ownership model behind it, means Barra will have enormous pride of place. We can’t wait to be able to show it off,” explains Peter.
Advice and grants for communities in Scotland
Plunkett has been working with the Scottish Government’s Scottish Rural Network Unit over the last three years to deliver business advice and grants to communities in Scotland looking into community ownership. If you are interested in learning more, please contact us to find out more.
