Image
Discover and bid on old, rare and collectible whiskies in our online auctions each month.
Highland Park
Founded
1798
Region
Island
Status
Operational
Company
Production type
Single Malt
Production capacity
2,500,000 litres per year
Highland Park is one of Scotland's most famous island distilleries, located in the town of Kirkwall in the Orkney archipelago. Founded back in 1798 by David Robertson, it is today part of the Edrington Group following its acquisition of Highland Distillers in 1999.
The Highland Park brand is world-renowned for the unique character provided to its whisky by Orcadian peat, cut by the distillery from Hobbister Moor. A largely treeless island, Orkney peat contains less lignin and more creosol, creating a lightly-smoky and floral single malt that proved hugely popular with blenders and when bottled on its own.
Highland Park is one of the oldest single malt brands, introduced as early as the 1950s and bottled both by the distillery and under license by companies such as Gordon & MacPhail. These early iterations are easily spotted by their use of the eye-catching yellow labels which depict legendary Orkney prient, smuggler and illicit distillery, Magnus Eunson. Highland Distillers then bottled a variety of Highland Park single malts in generic packaging along with Tamdhu and Glenrothes in the 1960s before launching the modern Highland Park brand in subsequent decade, which offered an 8- and 12-year-old expression.
Increased investment in the brand in 1979 then saw it relaunched the next year, now bottled in new squat bottles with screen-printed labelling (later replaced by black labels). The 12-year-old was the sole expression, remaining so until the release of an 18- and 25-year-old in 1997. A new bottle shape was then introduced by Edrington in 1999, before two significant rebranding exercises in 2006 and the Viking-themed aesthetic of 2017.
Despite the many changes, the 12-year-old has remained the proprietary age statement throughout. As of 2024 it is joined by a 15-, 18-, 21-, 25-, 30 and 40-year-old in the core range. A trio of travel exclusives called Land of Orkney, Sea of Orkney and Sky of Orkney are also available, aged 14-, 16- and 18-years-old, respectively.
1999-present
1937-1999
Highland Park Distillery
Holm Road
Kirkwall
KW15 1SU
Scotland
Active brands
Single Malt
