Council asked to raise a glass over plans for a new distillery at St Boswells

Edinburgh-based Michael Laird Architects are working with Jackson Distillers on proposals for a grain distillery on the Charlesfield industrial estate at St Boswells, on land north east of G A White Motors.

The distillery will be the first and only Scottish Borders-based producer of single grain whiskey spirit and grain neutral spirit using 100 per cent Scottish water and cereals of proven traceable origin.

Jackson Distillers, set up four years ago by St Boswells farmer Trevor Jackson, has earmarked the site as being ideal to establish only the second whisky distillery to open in the region in the last 180 years, the first being the Borders Distillery at Commercial Road in Hawick, launched in 2018 at a cost of £10m.

A report submitted to Scottish Borders Council from the project architects says: “The Jackson Distillery project is born from the recognition that the Charlesfield site is uniquely well-positioned to take high-quality local cereals from the Tweed Valley and to process them efficiently and cost-effectively with renewable energy into a high quality spirit for both grain whisky and grain neutral spirit.

"Consumers of today and tomorrow expect products they buy to be produced in a sustainable manner, with minimum environmental impact and with traceable provenance.

"The proximity of the production areas of wheat and barley shortens the distance of travel for the raw materials, keeping haulage and carbon costs down, and the easy access to the trunk road network to the north and south allows the spirit access to markets not just in Scotland but the rest of the UK.

"The venture brings significant benefits to the Scottish Borders economy by using local suppliers for grain, providing local employment opportunities and will do so with minimal impact on the environment through recycling production by-products.”

The site would also include associated bonded warehousing, car parking, a tank farm and boilerhouse.