The Highland Park Distillery, Orkney
The Highland Park Distillery is so named because it is situated on 'high land' above Kirkwall in Orkney on a property long known as the 'High Land Park'. It is one of the few distilleries still to have its own malting floor and working malt kilns, fired by coal and peat on alternate days.
In the early 1990s, more and more visitors were coming to the distillery and the board of Highland Distilleries, the company which then owned Highland Park, believed that the traditional distillery buildings should be more sensitively cared for and presented than they were at the time. There was also a need to reorganise the office and to create a new Board Room, as much for entertaining as for meetings. Work was carried out to the exterior, which included the refinishing of some of the Orkney stone walls with struck jointed lime mortar. The office building was completely reorganised with a new stair to the upstairs Board Room, joinery, plasterwork and ironwork inspired by William Lethaby's 'Arts & Crafts' work at Melsetter House on Hoy. The work was overseen on site by Leslie Burgher of
Pentarq, Architects in Kirkwall and well executed by Alfred Flett
of St Mary's Holm, with lime work by Tim Meek, plasterwork
by W D Moar and ironwork by Hamnavoe Engineering.
